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ANTS  AND  THE  CHILDREN 
OF  THE  GARDEN 

RELATING  THE  HABITS  OF  THE  BLACK  HARVESTER,  ANT 

AND 

GIVING  CONSIDERABLE   INFORMATION 
ABOUT  ANTS  IN  GENERAL 


BY 
J.  DEAN  SIMKINS 


1922 

HARR  WAGNER  PUBLISHING  CO. 

San  Francisco 

California 


Copyright  1922 
By  Harr  Wagner  Publishing  Co. 


PREFACE. 


A  colony  of  Black  Harvester  Ants  had  a  nest  on  the 
boundary  between  a  bean  patch  and  a  back  yard.  The 
garden  was  cultivated  by  three  boys  and  two  girls.  They 
became  much  interested  in  the  ants  and  asked  many  ques- 
tions about  them. 

The  common  prejudice  against  this  insect  soon  disappears 
when  it  is  understood  that  only  a  few  kinds  are  trouble- 
some and  that  ants  are  useful  to  man. 

Children  nine  years  of  age  and  over  are  easily  interested 
in  this  subject  and  desire  much  more  information  than  is 
to  be  found  in  juvenile  literature.  They  have  abundant 
time  and  opportunity  for  observation — a  great  deal  more 
than  adults  have.  They  are  naturalists  because  their  ances- 
tors have  been  all  down  through  the  ages.  Observe,  investi- 
gate, question,  question,  question,  experiment  is  the  rule  of 
life.  The  aim  of  this  book  is  to  aid  in  keeping  alive  these 
native  instincts,  and  the  little  denizen  of  the  earth,  that  we 
are  to  study,  is  a  fit  teacher  to  introduce  the  child  of  man 
to  the  world  of  nature. 

If  school  classes  could  read  something  of  the  wonderful 
actions  of  ants  and  speculate  on  the  motives  that  prompted 
the  same,  the  back  yard  might  become  as  interesting  as  the 
circus. 

In  the  following  pages,  an  attempt  has  been  made  to 
record  the  day-after-day  life  of  a  colony  of  Black  Harvester 
Ants  for  a  period  of  one  year — July  1st  to  July  1st.  Mono- 
syllables have  been  largely  employed  for  evident  reasons. 

The  observations  made  are  truly  recorded,  but  the  reader 
is  welcome  to  his  own  inferences  as  to  motives.  If  ants 
reason,  it  is  not  as  we  do.  Ants  can  learn  somewhat  by 
experience — can  be  trained. 

A  number  of  facts  are  given  about  several  common  ants 
and  considerable  information  about  ants  in  general. 

"The  Ant"  is  chosen  as  the  subject  because  it  is  found  in 


ii 


PREFACE 


all  outdoors,  is  commonly  observed  by  children,  is  the  most 
intelligent  insect,  and  has  been  an  interesting  object  of 
study,  speculation  or  observation  by  many  people,  from 
rustic  to  savant,  since  the  beginning  of  recorded  literature. 
How  many  hundred  years  since  Aesop  wrote  the  story  of 
"The  Ant  and  Grasshopper"?  What  child  in  any  land  has 
not  heard  or  read  the  story! 

J.  DEAN  SIMKINS. 

East  San  Diego,  California. 

July  1,  1922. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 


The  author  is  indebted  to  Dr.  William  Morton  Wheeler 
of  Harvard  University  for  identification  of  ants,  and  to 
various  authors  for  information  on  the  subject  of  this  book, 
among  them  chiefly: 

W.  H.  Wheeler,  author  of  "Ants,"  and  Dean  of  Economic 
Entomology,  Harvard  University. 

Henry  McCook,  author  of  several  books  on  the  subject. 

C.  W.  Woodworth,  Entomologist,  State  University  of 
California.  The  illustrations  of  the  Black  Harvester  Ant 
are  largely  modifications  of  a  drawing  by  Dr.  Woodworth. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Preface    : iii 

Acknowledgments     v 

Contents    vii 

Frontispiece     x 

CHAPTEE   I. 

Getting  acquainted    11 

Ants  easily  excited    12 

Ants  know  their  nest  mates 13 

Carry  nest  mates  around 14 

Guests.     Food    15 

Parasites    17 

Harvesting 18 

Cleanliness 19 

Slaves 22 

Partnership 23 

Mushrooms    23 

Eggs.     Babies 24 

Pupae    26 

CHAPTER   II. 

Florence  and  Ant  28 

Ants  and  cows    30 

Crossing  streams.     Driver  ants.     Clusters  of  ants 31 

Honey  ants    32 

Play    35 

Head.     Jaws.     Teeth.      (Illustrated)    36 

Feelers    41 

How  ants  scattered  over  world   42 

Garden   ants    42 

CHAPTER  III. 

Big  ant — Carpenter    44 

Music  box.    Winged  instrument.    Stringed  instrument.    (Illust.) .  49 

Craw.      Gizzard.      Hair 52 

Eyes    55 

How  to  tell  ants  from  other  insects   56 

Name  of  our  ant    56 

Mr.  Wheeler 's  letter  to  the  children   57 

Experiment,   Kenneth 's    58 

CHAPTER   IV. 

Florence  and  ant 60 

Odor.     Sense  of  smell.     Ammunition.     Daddy  Longlegs 61 


ii  CONTENTS 

Page 

Acrobats.     (Illustrated)    66 

Disagreement.      (Illustrated)    68 

Ants  on  earth  a  long  time 71 

Age  of  eggs,  larvae,  pupae,  workers,  queens 71 

Kinds  of  ants.     Argentine  ants   72 

Population.     Eesidence.     How  long  live  in  same  house 74 

CHAPTER  V. 

Harvesting.     Trails.     Lost.     Use  of  six  legs  77 

Teasing   ants    83 

Helping.     Rescuing    84 

Bees  and  ants  compared    87 

Men  and  ants  compared   89 

Longlegs.     (Illustration)    89 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Carrying.     Trails.     Loads.     (Illustrated)    93 

Fighting.     Ammunition    102 

Heat  and  cold   106 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Food.      (Illustrated)    108 

Certain  ants  for  certain  work    120 

Ant  lions    121 

Blood  of  ants    122 

Ant  has  no  special  friends   123 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Evening  visit  to  nest.     (Illustrated)    124 

Eggs.     Babies.     Pupae    129 

Queens    130 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Kings.      (Illustrated)    137 

Government    140 

Horned  toads.      (Illustrated) 143 

Harvester   colony  moves    150 

Our  Harvesters  move.     (Illustrated)    151 

CHAPTER   X. 

New  home.     Why  ants  move   158 

Ants '   nests    159 

Sun  parlors.     (Illustrated)    161 

Garden   ants.      (Illustrated)    164 

The  Fire  Ant 171 

Dwarfs.     Sizes  of  ants.      (Illustrated) 172 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Robbers  make  first  attack   174 

Yard  of  our  ants   180 


CONTENTS  iii 

Page 

Ants  useful  to  man   183 

Carpenter  ants  184 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Instinct.     Learning.     Memory    186 

Traps.      Snares    188 

Animals  that  live  with  ants   , 189 

Animal  food    191 

Water.      Rain    194 

Mining  a  home.     (Illustrated)    199 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Carpenters.     Harvesters.     Other  insects.     Rain.   (Illustrated)..  202 

White  ants.     Termites  212 

Ant  and  Florence.     Eyesight    213 

Robbers  in  second  attack.     (Illustrated)    216 

Queens.     Eggs.     Nests.     Acrobats  221 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Mining.     Trails.     Work    222 

Longlegs.      Food.      Instinct    224 

Carpenters     225 

Ants  killed.     Health  officer.     Inspector  226 

Battle  suspected.     Clearing  yard.     (Illustrated)    227 

Carpenters '  cows  discovered  229 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Robbers  make  third  attack.     (Illustrated)    233 

Carpenters.     Cows.     Other  insects    245 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Velvet   ants    249 

Harvesters.      Enemies.      Animals    that    resemble    ants.      Ants 

carry  water    250 

Cows.     Acrobats  swarm.     Watchdogs  250 

Flying    255 

Ladybugs.     Spiders.     Daddy   Longlegs.     Oak   galls.     Wireless. 

Mites.     Bats 255 

Cows  of  Acrobats  found   258 

Farewell  feast  given  our  ants 262 

Farewell    264 


QBE  OP  THE  TT»0 

THE  TWO  HUMPS  OH  THE  PEDICEL 
. SOUUD  PRODUCING  ORGAH 


TEBLER 


UPPER  JA 
MUSTACHE 
BIG  SIDE  JAW* 


CLAW3 


r^ 


BLACK  HARVESTEB  AST 


This  is  the  Ant  that  was  observed  by  the  children. 
Length  of  worker,  one-fourth  inch.      ( Veraniessor  andrei)    drawing, 
from  Bulletin  No.  207,  State  College  of  Agriculture,  Berkeley,  Calif-. 


THE  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN. 


ANTS  AND  THE  CHILDREN 
OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  I. 

July  1  to  July  10. 

Getting  Acquainted. 

*FLORENCE.  Just  see  our  ants  work.  They  look  like 
little  camels. 

A  MAN  (passing  by).     A  little  poison  will  fix  'em. 

CECIL.  "Fix  'em!"  Who  wants  'em  fixed?  Why,  ants 
are  worth  more  than  bees  to  man.  I've  been  reading  about 
them  and  watching  them,  too. 

The  MAN.  Careful  there.  Bees  produce  over -300,000 
tons  of  honey  a  year  for  Uncle  Sam. 

KENNETH.  I'm  surprised  to  see  this  big  stranger  ant 
walking  around  this  nest.  I  thought  strangers  were  not 
welcome. 

ALBERT.  Look  at  this  ant  pulling  another  out  of  the 
house  by  the  leg. 

FLORENCE.  I  wonder  how  many  babies  they  have  and 
what  they  look  like. 

*Generally  the  reader  will  omit  the  names  of  the  speakers  in  this 
dialog. 


12    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

DOROTHY.  Here's  one  carrying  a  stick  home.  Maybe 
that's  to  whip  the  children  with.  Ha,  ha !  Look  at  this 
ant  carrying  an  umbrella. 

FLORENCE.  Cecil  says  ants  are  so  smart.  I'd  like  to 
see  their  teacher. 

DOROTHY.  My  teacher  says,  "Butterflies  attract  others 
with  their  beautiful  wings  and  some  spiders  are  graceful 
dancers."  But  what  can  you  say  for  ants? 

CECIL.  And  my  teacher  says,  "As  ants  are  nearly  blind, 
they  may  feel  the  beauty  of  face,  wing,  form,  or  motion 
of  a  fellow  ant,  or  enjoy  it  through  some  wireless  that  we 
know  nothing  about.  Do  you  suppose  there  is  no  beauty 
except  what  man  can  see?  Were  there  no  roses  before 
man  came  on  earth?  What's  the  use  of  microscopic 
beauty?" 

KENNETH.  Why,  I  saw  an  ant  try  to  do  a  highland 
fling.  It  stood  on  its  hind  legs,  jumped  up  and  down, 
sprang  half  an  inch,  and  whirled  round.  But  maybe  it 
was  just  taking  its  physical  exercise. 

FLORENCE.  Look  at  this  fool  ant  trying  to  drag  a 
squash  seed  home.  There,  five  others  are  helping  and  the 
load  moves. 

ALBERT.  Are  these  guards  that  are  stationed  around 
the  door? 

KENNETH.  See  this  gang  of  harvesters  coming  home, 
each  with  a  load  of  grain. 

Ants  Excited. 

FLORENCE.  If  the  ants  are  so  brave,  why  did  they  all 
skedaddle  into  the  house  when  Kenneth  threw  a  yellow 
jacket  down  by  the  door? 

CECIL.    If  you  had  seen  Albert  perform  when  he  stirred 


ANTS  KNOW  THEIR  NEST   MATES  13 

up  a  yellow  jackets'  nest  the  other  day,  you  would  know 
why. 

FLORENCE.  Why  such  excitement  among  the  ants 
when  I  dropped  a  handful  of  bugs  and  pebbles  and  grass- 
hoppers near  the  door? 

CECIL.  How  would  you  act  if  a  lion  escaped  from  the 
show,  or  an  earthquake  shook  your  house  down? 

Ants  Enow  Their  Nest  Mates. 

FLORENCE.  Do  members  of  a  colony  know  their  own 
ants  from  others  of  the  same  kind? 

CECIL.  I  find  I  don't  know  as.  much  as  I  thought  I  did. 
Here's  a  wise-looking  ant;  let's  ask  her.  How  about  it, 
Ant?  Do  your  sisters  all  have  names? 

ANT.  Certainly  not,  but  I  know  all  the  ants  that  belong 
in  our  colony  when  I  meet  them,  and  you  don't  know  a 
tenth  of  the  people  that  live  in  your  small  city. 

CECIL.  How  do  you  tell  your  many  hundred  ants  from 
others  of  the  same  kind? 

ANT.     Mainly  by  the  sense  of  smell. 

CECIL.  I  have  three  strange  ants  in  this  bottle.  They 
are  like  yours,  but  from  another  colony.  I'll  drop  them 
near  your  door  to  see  if  yours  know  they  are  newcomers. 

ALBERT.  Look!  No.  1  was  carried  into  the  house. 
Strange!  No.  2  ran  away  with  our -ants  grabbing  at  her, 
and  No.  3  has  lain  down  on  her  side  and  is  being  examined 
by  six  of  our  ants.  Now  one  has  picked  her  up,  carried 
her  away,  and  laid  her  down.  There;  she  jumps  up  and 
runs  away. 

CECIL.  Let's  take  two  of  ours  down  to  the  colony  like 
ours. 

ALBERT.     See!     One  is  allowed  to  walk  away  without 


14    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

much  trouble,  but  they  pick  the   other  up  and  carry  her 
off  the  premises.    Look  at  her  hike  out ! 

Ants  Carry  Nest  Mates  Around. 

KENNETH.     I'm  afraid  you  are  cannibals. 
ANT.    White  ants  are.    We  may  eat  the  dead  of  another 
kind.      But    what   if   we    are    cannibals?      Some    tribes    of 
men  are. 

CECIL.  Red  ants  attack  and  even  murder  and  eat  their 
own  kind,  and  I've  seen  yours  do  about  the  same  except  to 
eat  their  nest  mates. 

ANT.    What  do  you  mean?    Are  we  not  very  peaceable? 

CECIL.  Yours  often  drag  some  of  the  family  out  of  the 
house.  I  saw  three  cripple  another  one  in  forcing  it  out  of 
the  nest,  and  once  I  saw  an  ant  killed  in  that  way.  Do 
you  punish  bad  ants? 

ANT.  If  a  man  had  the  smallpox,  would  you  take  him 
out  of  town  as  a  punishment?  Wouldn't  you  take  him, 
whether  he  wanted  to  go  or  not? 

KENNETH.     Don't  you  have  any  doctors? 

ANT.  We  just  carry  the  sick  ants  out  of  the  house,  as 
you  know. 

ALBERT.  What  do  you  do  with  an  ant  that  loses  her 
mind? 

ANT.  Why  ask?  I  say  we  carry  our  sick  ants  out  of 
the  house. 

ALBERT.  What  is  the  easiest  way  to  make  a  mad  ant 
helpless? 

ANT.     Cut  one  of  her  feelers  off. 

ALBERT.  But  what  if  an  ant  refuses  to  work,  whether 
she  is  sick  or  not. 


OTHER  ANIMALS  LIVE  WITH  ANTS  15 

ANT.  A  well  ant  can  lay  off  work  at  any  time  and  no 
attention  is  paid  to  her. 

FLORENCE.     Don't  you  wish  you  were  an  ant,  Albert? 

Other  Animals  Live  with  Ants.    Food. 

ALBERT.    Do  other  animals  live  in  the  house  with  you? 

ANT.  Of  course,  and  other  animals  live  in  the  house 
with  you,  also. 

ALBERT.  I  see  so  many  little  red  spiders,  or  mites,  in 
your  yard.  Do  you  want  them  there? 

ANT.     No,  but  we  can't  catch  them. 

FLORENCE.     You're  too  slow  for  any  use. 

ANT.    Let  me  see  you  capture  that  fly  on  your  nose. 

ALBERT.  Why  do  you  let  so  many  things  live  in  the 
house  to  annoy  you? 

ANT.  You  never  have  any  flies  and  fleas  at  your  home, 
I  suppose. 

ALBERT.  You  say  that  bugs,  or  beetles,  live  with  ants. 
Tell  us  about  them. 

ANT.  There  is  a  single  family  of  two  hundred  kinds  of 
beetles,  and  each  bug  spends  the  daytime  in  the  nest  of 
some  kind  of  ant.  Most  of  these  beetles  have  moose  horns. 

ALBERT.    Do  ants  ever  feed  any  of  the  bugs? 

ANT.  A  beetle  will  walk  up  to  an  ant,  place  its  mouth 
against  the  mouth  of  the  ant,  ask  for  food,  and  get  it. 
That  is  one  way  we  feed  our  kings,  queens,  babies,  and 
hungry  sisters,  too. 

ALBERT.  Does  one  ant  ever  get  food  from  another  in 
any  other  way  than  by  asking  for  it  with  soft  strokes  of 
the  feelers? 

ANT.  Yes.  Some  ants  will  lick  not  only  the  head  and 
face  of  another  when  asking  for  food,  but  even  the  abdo- 


16    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

men.  You  know  that  some  beggars  understand  the  business 
better  than  others.  Then,  sometimes,  ants  simply  steal 
food  from  others.  Of  course,  man  wouldn't  do  such  a  thing. 

KENNETH.  I  don't  quite  understand  how  ants  feed 
their  hungry  workers. 

ANT.  One  opens  its  jaws,  raises  some  food  from  its 
crop,  and  passes  it  to  the  mouth  of  the  hungry  one. 

ALBERT.    Do  you  ever  feed  animals  that  you  don't  like? 

ANT.  Do  you  feed  your  flies  and  mosquitoes  because 
you  like  them?  Or  your  rats,  mice  and  insects  that  do 
millions  of  damage  to  crops?  Or  your  human  robbers? 
Yes,  we  feed  animals  we  don't  like,  and  for  the  same  reason 
you  do. 

FLORENCE.     Do  your  babies  eat  nothing  but  sweets? 

ANT.  They  eat  grain,  insects,  and  liquid  food.  We 
place  the  babies  on  their  backs,  side  by  side,  each  in  a 
little  trough  in  the  earth  floor.  Then  we  place  the  grain 
or  torn-up  insect  on  their  flat  abdomens  and  the  babies 
bend  their  heads  forward  and  eat  off  this  self-made  table. 
The  babies  of  many  harvesting  ants  eat  the  same  things  as 
do  the  grown-ups. 

ALBERT.  What  are  you  going  to  do  with  this  pile  of 
dead  insects  in  your  yard? 

ANT.  You  know  the  skeletons  of  bugs,  sow  bugs,  grass- 
hoppers and  the  like  are  on  the  outside  of  their  bodies, 
while  yours  is  inside.  We  have  eaten  the  flesh  out  of  some 
of  these  you  mention. 

ALBERT.     How  do  you  get  at  the  inside? 

ANT.  We  find  a  soft  place,  say  at  a  joint,  and  use  our 
scissor-like  jaws  to  make  an  opening.  Then  we  use  our 
proboscis.  Did  you  ever  see  the  elephant  drink  water 
with  his  proboscis? 

FLORENCE.     But  I  wouldn't  eat  bugs. 


PARASITES  17 

ANT.     No,  you  prefer  snails. 

DOROTHY.  Why  did  you  take  that  live  bug  back  that 
was  trying  to  get  out  of  your  house  today? 

ANT.  Some  kinds  of  ants  keep  beetles  that  they  will 
not  allow  out  of  the  house.  They  get  something  they  like 
from  the  backs  of  the  bugs  in  some  cases,  but  may  keep 
others  for  pets,  like  you  do  your  cats,  dogs,  parrots,  and 
canaries. 

DOROTHY.  You  depend  mainly  on  grain  for  a  living, 
and  so  are  not  very  good  hunters  for  live  game.  Still,  I 
saw  you  capture  a  fly  and  another  small  insect.  I  .suppose 
that  ants  never  catch  the  small  cockroaches  that  live  with 
them? 

ANT.    No,  but  they  get  used  to  them  sooner  than  you  do. 

DOROTHY.  I  see  you  have  carried  home  the  bodies  of 
cucumber  bugs,  beetles,  earwigs,  bees,  grasshoppers,  sow 
bugs,  flies  and  worms. 

Parasites. 

ALBERT.  Is  there  room  on  your  body  for  another 
animal  to  live? 

ANT.  Plenty  of  it.  A  mite  fastens  itself  to  the  body 
of  a  certain  ant  with  its  sticky  feet,  moves  to  the  right 
place,  and  helps  itself  to  food  as  it  is  passed  from  one  ant 
to  another,  or  to  a  baby. 

FLORENCE.    Do  parasites  ever  get  on  the  baby? 

ANT.  A  certain  baby  fly  wraps  its  long  neck  around 
that  of  the  baby  ant,  leaving  the  heads  of  the  two  side  by 
side.  You  see  what  will  happen  every  time  the  baby  ant 
eats.  This  kind  of  an  ant  baby  spins  a  cocoon. 

FLORENCE.    Then  what  becomes  of  the  baby  fly? 

ANT.  It  slips  down  to  the  foot  of  the  bed,  and  so  is 
included  in  the  ant  baby's  cocoon. 


18    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  AVhen  the  ant  baby  comes  out  of  the 
cocoon  full  grown  and  runs  away,  what  becomes  of  the 
other  one? 

ANT.  That's  easy.  It  comes  out  of  the  same  cocoon  a 
real  fly  and  sails  away. 

Harvesting. 

KENNETH.  How  do  you  thresh  all  this  grain  you  carry 
home  ? 

ANT.  We  open  a  seed  coat  at  the  weakest  place,  take 
out  the  kernel,  and  store  it  away.  Then  we  carry  the  chaff 
out  to  the  rubbish  heap.  We  like  such  seeds  as  wild  oats, 
foxtail,  grass,  salt  grass,  plaintain,  filaree,  fireweed,  milk- 
weed, star  thistle,  and  all  the  small  relatives  of  the  dan- 
delion. 

KENNETH.  You  have  an  awful  time  dragging  filaree 
seed  with  its  long,  twisted  tail;  star  thistle  with  its 
umbrella,  and  wild  oats  with  its  grasshopper  legs. 

ANT.  The  chaff  of  such  seed  comes  handy  to  close  our 
doors  with  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  we  quit 
work.  We  close  the  doors  to  keep  out  burglars  and  to 
regulate  drafts.  We  keep  our  babies  and  eggs  in  the  warm 
upper  rooms  in  daytime,  and  in  the  warm  lower  rooms  at 
night. 

KENNETH.  I  notice  that  you  open  the  doors  about 
three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  sometimes  take  the 
chaff  to  the  rubbish  heap  in  relays,  each  ant  carrying  its 
load  about  one-third  of  the  way. 

ANT.  Yes,  but  when  we  open  the  door  quickly,  we 
throw  the  chaff  in  a  pile  until  we  get  time  to  take  it  away. 
As  a  rule  we  carry  it  from  the  room  directly  out  to  the 
rubbish  heap.  But  sometimes  we  leave  a  few  loads  just 
outside  to  close  the  door  with,  or  we  may  take  it  out  and 


CLEANLINESS  19 

close  the  door  with  it  at  once.  We  try  to  use  good  sense 
and  not  waste  time. 

CECIL.    What  do  you  do  when  loads  are  too  heavy? 

ANT.    The  same  as  you.    Get  others  to  help. 

CECIL.  I  see  that  ants  don't  always  agree.  One  may 
pull  toward  the  door  and  another  away  from  it.  One  may 
carry  an  object  into  the  house  and  another  bring  it  out. 

ALBERT.     Do  they  ever  fight  about  it? 

CECIL.    Hardly  ever. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  an  ant  carrying  a  pole  an  inch  long 
with  another  ant  riding  on  it.  Then  the  straw  was  up- 
ended, but  the  rider  still  hung  on. 

CECIL.  Neither  ant  may  have  known  of  the  other. 
Often,  when  you  think  one  is  riding,  it  is  walking  on  the 
ground  with  its  hind  feet  and  helping  lift  the  load  with 
the  others.  One  often  pushes  a  load  while  another  pulls. 
Ants  that  seem  to  be  working  against  each  other  often  are 
trying  to  do  the  same  thing. 

KENNETH.  In  taking  heavy  loads  away  from  the  door, 
the  ants  often  climb  the  hard,  steep  wall  instead  of  passing 
out  over  the  gentle  slope  of  soft  earth  pellets  on  other 
sides.  I  think  I  see  why — better  foot  hold. 

Cleanliness. 

ALBERT.  I  have  noticed  that  each  evening  about  two 
hundred  of  you  get  out  on  the  ring  of  earth  pellets  that 
are  piled  around  your  door,  and  walk  around.  In  this 
way  you  knock  the  bumps  off  the  high  places  into  the  low 
and  grade  your  yard  nicely.  You  dump  the  earth  into  low 
places  when  you  bring  it  out,  also. 

ANT.  Yes,  but  I  wish  you  children  wouldn't  muss  up 
our  grading  every  day. 


20    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

KENNETH.  Most  always  you  clean  all  the  rubbish  off 
every  evening,  too. 

ANT.  We  keep  our  house  just  as  clean  as  our  yard.  I 
guess  we  are  the  most  cleanly  and  most  orderly  insects  in 
the  world. 

FLORENCE.  How  do  you  keep  your  eggs,  your  babies 
and  yourselves  so  free  from  dirt? 

ANT.  We  shampoo  (lick)  them  and  each  other.  We 
also  brush  ourselves  and  each  other.  Generally  an  ant 
attends  to  her  own  toilet,  but  dust  is  hard  to  get  off.  Still, 
we  often  help  each  other  when  it  isn't  necessary. 

KENNETH.  When  I  throw  dirt  on  your  ants,  they  just 
wipe  off  their  feelers  and  then  go  on.  Work  first  and 
clean  up  when  they  get  time,  eh?  One  day,  after  I  had 
sprinkled  dust  on  several  ants,  they  hunted  for  me  for 
fifteen  minutes  and  then  all  went  to  work.  But  first  one  of 
them  stood  upright  while  three  others  removed  the  dirt. 

FLORENCE.  I  used  to  think  your  ants  were  always  so 
clean,  but  now  when  I  see  a  shiny  one  in  the  morning  I 
suspect  she  is  a  slacker. 

ANT.  Yes.  Our  workers  often  look  like  your  men  that 
labor  in  the  machine  shop.  Dusty  mining,  dusty  weeds, 
dusty  trails,  dusty  air.  Of  course,  we  can't  always  be  clean. 

FLORENCE.     How  can  you  tell  when  you  are  clean? 

ANT.    We  can  feel  dirt  and  smell  it,  too. 

FLORENCE.     How  do  you  stand  while  cleaning  up? 

ANT.  Often  with  four  feet  on  the  ground,  like  a  dog's, 
or  with  body  upright,  like  yours.  Then  we  use  our  fore- 
legs much  as  you  do  your  arms  and  hands. 

FLORENCE.  Sometimes  you  get  so  dusty  all  over  you 
couldn't  get  it  all  off  yourself.  Describe  just  how  one  ant 
would  give  another  a  good  bath. 

CECIL.     Let  me  read :     "It  begins   on   one   side   of  the 


CLEANLINESS  21 

head  and  goes  clear  round  the  ant,  missing  nothing,  not 
even  the  feet  and  legs.  The  one  that  is  getting  the  'licking' 
limbers  up  its  legs  and  holds  them  out;  kneels  down,  lies 
on  its  side,  and  so  on,  as  if  enjoying  the  bath." 

FLORENCE.  I  use  tears  several  times  a  minute  as  an 
eye-wash.  What  do  you  use? 

ANT.  I  have  sponges  on  my  forelegs.  So  I  sponge  my 
eyes  with  saliva  to  keep  them  clean. 

FLORENCE.  When  the  comb  on  your  foreleg  gets  full 
of  dirt,  how  is  the  comb  cleaned?  Yes,  how  is  the  whole 
foreleg  cleaned? 

ANT.  With  my  whiskers,  but  sometimes  with  my  jaws. 
The  jaws  of  some  ants  are  edged  with  teeth ;  of  some  others 
with  hairs.  You  know  that  some  ants  have  real  whiskers 
on  the  under  jaw,  while  others  have  tufts  of  hair  on  the 
under  lip  and  bristles  on  the  upper. 

FLORENCE.  What  do  you  do  with  the  dirt  you  get  in 
your  mouth  when  you  lick  eggs,  babies,  queens,  other  ants, 
bugs  and  yourself?  Swallow  it? 

ANT.  Oh,  no;  or  we  would  soon  be  full  of  dirt  like  the 
fishworm.  An  ant  has  a  pocket  under  its  mouth  something 
like  the  pelican  has.  The  dirt  is  collected  in  this,  rolled 
into  a  little  ball,  and  dumped  out. 

FLORENCE.  You  shine  as  if  you  are  polished  today. 
How  do  you  do  it? 

ANT.  Most  of  the  polishing  is  done  with  the  tongue, 
and  I  have  to  get  other  ants  to  help.  You  have  seen  a  cat 
use  her  tongue. 

FLORENCE.     Do  you  use  stove  polish? 

ANT.  The  little  oil  that  is  in  our  saliva  gives  the  best 
shine. 


22        ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


Slaves. 

ALBERT.     Do  you  keep  slaves? 

ANT.  No,  but  some  ants  do.  Some  of  our  ants  are  much 
smaller  than  others,  but  they  are  not  slaves.  Most  colonies 
of  ants  have  different  sizes  in  each  family.  I  don't  suppose 
all  men  are  equal  in  size,  even  in  the  same  family. 

ALBERT.    How  do  ants  get  slaves? 

ANT.    They  steal  the  babies  of  other  ants  and  raise  them. 

ALBERT.     Do  slaves  ever  try  to  run  away? 

ANT.  No.  They  like  their  job.  Some  kinds  of  ants 
would  starve  without  them,  and  some  are  so  helpless  that 
they  have  to  be  carried  around  by  their  slaves;  they  even 
can't  feed  themselves  on  account  of  their  small,  weak 
mouth-parts,  such  as  our  kings  have. 

ALBERT.  I  think  the  weak  ants  are  really  the  slaves, 
then.  Man  better  look  out  and  not  get  too  many  servants. 

ANT.  As  the  weak  ants  need  no  workers,  they  have 
none,  'and  are  all  kings  or  queens,  of  course. 

ALBERT.  I  see  the  effect  of  slavery  when  carried  on 
long  enough.  And  with  more  time  I  think  these  weak 
colonies  of  kings  and  queens  will  all  die  off.  It's  best  to 
keep  on  working  as  your  colony  does.  But  we  all  want  to 
be  kings  or  queens,  don't  we? 

DOROTHY.    Suppose  you  tell  us  about  the  Amazon  ants. 

ANT.  A  single  ant  generally  gives  up  when  attacked 
by  several  of  the  enemy,  but  not  an  Amazon.  To  fight  is 
its  whole  business  of  life,  and  yet  it  does  no  work.  It  is 
washed,  fed  and  carried  by  slaves. 


PARTNERSHIP.  MUSHROOMS.        23 

Partnership. 

CECIL.  Do  different  kinds  of  ants  ever  go  into  partner- 
ship? 

ANT.  Yes.  They  live  in  the  same  house,  but  in  different 
rooms,  in  many  cases.  A  small  kind  may  live  with  a  large 
kind. 

ALBERT.  I  once  read  something  like  this:  "When  one 
of  the  large  kind  comes  home,  a  small  one  climbs  onto  its 
back,  licks  the  jaws  and  sides  of  the  face,  and  tickles  the 
worker  with  its  feelers  until  the  large  one  is  overcome  with 
kindness  and  gives  up  a  taste,  mouth  to  mouth." 

CECIL.  How  does  the  large  one  get  pay  for  wrhat  it 
does? 

ANT.  Sometimes  it  calls  on  the  small  one  and  gets  a 
free  shampoo.  These  ants  live  in  Texas. 

Mushrooms. 

ALBERT.  They  say  some  ants  raise  mushrooms  to  eat, 
even  in  California.  I  don't  see  how  they  do  it. 

ANT.  "The  ants  carry  some  leaves  home,  chew  and  roll 
them  into  little  balls,  throw  them  into  a  room  to  rot,  plant 
mushrooms  and  clip  off  little  pieces  of  the  root-like  parts 
as  food  for  themselves,  babies  and  cows." 

ALBERT.  Do  the  ants  carry  home  dead  leaves  or  live 
ones? 

ANT.  "They  climb  a  tree,  bite  circles  on  the  tops  of  the 
leaves,  take  the  parts  in  their  jaws,  rip  them  off,  and  either 
take  them  home  or  drop  them  on  the  ground  for  others  to 
carry." 

ALBERT.    Don't  the  ants  eat  any  of  the  leaves? 

ANT.  No,  but  after  using  them  as  fertilizer  for  mush- 
room beds,  they f  feed  them  to  baby  beetles. 


24    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ALBERT.  Do  other  things  ever  eat  the  mushrooms 
raised  by  ants? 

ANT.  Sometimes  the  little  blind  cockroaches  do — the 
kind  that  lives  with  ants. 

ALBERT.  I  suppose  the  ants  are  lucky  enough  not  to 
be  bothered  with  weeds  in  their  garden? 

ANT.  Small  workers  attend  the  garden  and  pull  out 
any  plants  not  wanted. 

ALBERT.  Looks  to  me  like  ants  are  real  farmers — 
make  and  attend  hotbeds  just  as  we  do.  By  regulating  the 
drafts  and  temperature  they  can  have  mushrooms  the  year 
round. 

Eggs. 

DOROTHY.  I'd  like  to  see  your  eggs.  I  don't  suppose 
they  are  as  large  as  a  goose  egg. 

ANT.  If  you  would  lay  fifty  eggs  side  by  side,  they 
wouldn't  reach  an  inch — even  the  eggs  of  the  largest  ant. 

DOROTHY.  If  they  are  so  small,  I  don't  see  how  you 
move  them  from  place  to  place. 

ANT.  We  lick  them,  stick  several  together,  and  thus 
carry  a  number  at  a  time. 

Babies. 

FLORENCE.  I  saw  two  of  your  babies  today.  They 
looked  like  worms  to  me,  or  like  a  tiny  crook^necked 
squash,  or  like  a  poke.  What  do  you  call  them? 

ANT.  A  baby  ant  has  a  pretty  name,  "Larva."  But 
some  call  it  a  grub,  worm,  baby  or  maggot. 

DOROTHY.  Do  different  ants  all  feed  their  babies  the 
same  way? 

ANT.      No.      Some    feed    them    from   mouth    to    mouth; 


.     EGGS.     BABIES.  25 

others  make  them  eat  solid  food  off  a  table  made  of  their 
own  bodies,  and  some  feed  both  ways.  But  the  first  babies 
of  a  new  colony  must  be  fed  liquid  food  from  the  mouth 
of  the  queen,  as  she  has  no  other  kind  to  give  them. 

DOROTHY.  How  does  the  baby  get  rid  of  its  tough 
skin? 

ANT.  Sheds  it,  and  the  old  poke  goes  to  the  bottom  if 
the  baby  spins  a  cocoon. 

DOROTHY.  Then  the  babies  of  some  kinds  of  ants  spin 
cocoons  around  themselves?  I  don't  see  how  they  can. 

ANT.  "The  nurses  bury  the  baby  in  soft  earth.  It 
wriggles  around  until  it  is  in  a  little  cell.  Then  it  lines 
the  wall  with  silken  thread  and  finishes  the  cocoon  from 
the  inside." 

DOROTHY.     I  didn't  know  a  baby  could  work. 

ANT.  Oh,  yes.  Some  babies  use  their  cocoon  silk  to 
bind  leaves  together  with,  to  make  a  home  for  the  colony. 

DOROTHY.    Are  your  babies  much  bother? 

ANT.  The  ventilation,  temperature  and  moisture  are 
always  changing  in  the  nest,  so  we  have  to  keep  the  babies, 
other  children  and  the  eggs  on  the  move  like  a  shuttle. 

DOROTHY.  I  have  seen  you  carry  out  the  dead  bodies 
of  half  a  dozen  babies  a  distance  of  six  to  twenty  feet. 
What's  the  idea? 

ANT.    What  would  you  expect  us  to  do  with  them? 

DOROTHY.  Would  I  find  babies  at  your  house  just 
once  a  year? 

ANT.  You  would  find  them  at  any  time  in  southern 
California  except  a  very  few  months  in  winter,  and  you 
might  find  a  few  even  then. 

DOROTHY.  Then  I'd  think  you'd  get  the  old  ones  and 
the  new  ones  all  mixed  up. 

ANT.     The  nurses  assort  the  babies  and  eggs,  and  place 


26    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

them  in  piles.  Different  ages  require  different  tempera- 
tures. 

DOROTHY.     I  suppose  the  old  ants  act  as  nurses. 

ANT.  Until  their  bodies  are  hardened  enough  for  regu- 
lar work,  young  ants  often  attend  the  babies.  They  also 
carry  or  guard  the  babies  on  the  trail  when  the  family  is 
moving.  The  smallest  ants  of  a  colony  often  act  as  nurses, 
too. 

DOROTHY.  I  want  to  see  you  when  you  move.  AVhen 
that  happens  I  want  to  see  the  parade  of  kings,  queens, 
workers,  young  ants,  children,  babies,  eggs,  seed  carriers — 
yes,  and  your  menagerie,  too.  You'll  look  like  a  trail  of 
"Forty-niners." 

FLORENCE.  They  say  the  babies  of  some  ants  are  cov- 
ered with  hair.  Of  what  use  is  it? 

ANT.  Hairs  are  often  used  to  keep  the  babies  warm ; 
to  keep  hungry  ones  from  eating  their  sisters;  to  keep  the 
bodies  from  touching  the  ground ;  to  stick  a  number  of 
babies  together  when  an  ant  wants  to  carry  several  at  a 
time ;  to  hang  the  babies  up  on  the  wall  with  when  the 
hairs  are  hooked  at  the  end;  to  help  get  the  young  out  of 
the  cocoon  by  moving  back  and  forth.  Oh,  I  don't  know 
what  all  that  the  hairs  are  used  for. 

Pupae. 

DOROTHY.  At  first  the  baby  is  a  big  eater  and  then  it 
quits  to  grow  legs  and  feelers.  What's  its  name  after  it's 
too  old  to  be  called  a  baby? 

ANT.  It  is  called  a  "pupa."  I've  heard  people  call  a 
cocoon  an  egg,  but  it  isn't. 

FLORENCE.  How  can  legs,  feelers  and  wings  (of  kings 
and  queens)  grow  if  the  pupa  doesn't  eat  anything? 

ANT.     The  baby  (larva)   eats  enough  for  itself  and  also 


PUPAE  27 

enough  to  last  the  pupa  until  it's  changed  to  an  ant.  The 
pupae  of  some  ants  are  not  in  cocoons.  I  see  you  children 
wear  cocoons. 

DOROTHY.  Not  much.  These  are  clothes.  Don't  you 
suppose  we  eat? 

ANT.    You  two  little  queens  have  no  wings,  I  think. 

ALBERT.     Not  yet. 

DOROTHY.  You  know  the  larva  is  buried  in  dirt  when 
it  spins  its  cocoon.  Is  the  cocoon  left  buried? 

ANT.  No.  The  nurses  take  it  out,  brush  it  off,  and  take 
it  where  they  want  it. 

DOROTHY.  You  spoke  of  ants  stealing  babies  and 
pupae.  Small  ants  couldn't  hurt  the  pupa  of  a  large  one 
if  it  be  wrapped  in  a  cocoon,  could  they? 

ANT.  Oh,  yes,  they  could.  A  lot  of  them  would  get  on 
the  cocoon,  bite  holes  in  it,  rip  it  open,  tear  up  the  pupa 
and  carry  the  pieces  home.  If  the  pupa  had  no  cocoon, 
they  would  drag  the  young  one  to  their  nes%. 


28    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  II. 

July  10  to  July  16. 

Florence  and  the  Ant. 

FLORENCE.     Say,  Ant,  what  are  you  good  for? 

ANT.  What  about  you?  You  plow  up  our  homes  for 
bean  patches,  cave  in  our  ceilings,  and  bother  us.  One 
evening  700  of  us  had  to  quit  work  and  go  home  on  account 
of  your  big  feet.  You  don't  look  where  you  step  even  if 
you  have  good  eyes.  You  act  as  if  everything  belongs  to 
you. 

.  FLORENCE.  Well,  the  earth  is  ours.  We  have  to  have 
it  to  make  a  living  on,  there  are  so  many  of  us.  We  have 
society,  government,  and  help  one  another — even  other 
animals. 

ANT.  We  were  here  millions  of  years  before  you  were, 
and  more  ants  can  be  found  in  one  county  than  people  in 
your  whole  nation.  We,  too,  have  society,  government, 
help  one  another  and  even  other  animals. 

FLORENCE.  Don't  we  bring  you  sugar,  flies,  cactus 
apple  and  seeds  nearly  every  day? 

ANT.     Yes,  but  that  is  because  you  are  a  spy. 

FLORENCE.     That's  a  pretty  hard  name. 

ANT.  Think  of  the  weed  seed  we  carry  from  your  bean 
patch.  And  then  we  plow  up  the  hard  ground,  mix  up  the 
soil,  let  in  air  and  water  and  fertilizer  to  make  the  soil 
ready  to  raise  your  beans. 

FLORENCE :  I  don't  believe  there  is  a  single  colony  of 
any  kind  of  ant  living  in  that  bean  patch  or  plowing  it. 


FLORENCE  AND  THE  ANT  29 

ANT.  No,  but  there  were  many  there  for  thousands  of 
years  before  you  plowed  it. 

FLORENCE.  The  books  say  it  was  earthworms  that 
swallowed  the  surface  of  the  earth  many  times  and  got  it 
ready  for  man. 

ANT.  Yes,  earthworms  get  all  the  credit,  but  we  do 
more  than  they  do  in  a  dry  country  like  this  to  enrich  the 
soil. 

FLORENCE.  But  we  can  do  so  many  things  that  you 
can't  do. 

ANT.  We  can  take  a  baby  and  make  either  a  beautiful 
winged  queen  of  it  or  a  wingless,  sturdy  worker. 

FLORENCE.  I  guess  that's  so,  even  if  I  have  heard  it 
denied. 

ANT.  We  can  track  an  ant  either  by  acid  or  foot.  Can 
you  track  a  man  across  a  grassy  field?  Why,  I  could  name 
a  score  of  things  I  can  do  that  you  can't. 

FLORENCE.  Smarty !  You  are  very  stupid  when  alone. 
You  have  to  think  in  gangs  or  not  at  all.  Your  brain  is 
not  as  large  as  the  fourth  part  of  a  small  pinhead,  so  what 
can  be  expected? 

ANT.  If  you  could  do  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  your 
brain,  you'd  be  some  animal. 

FLORENCE.  Say,  Ant,  let's  make  up..  Maybe  there's 
room  on  earth  for  both  of  us. 

ANT.     All  right;  shake. 

FLORENCE.  I  kind  o'  like  you  because  you're  never 
discouraged. 

ANT.  And  it's  a  good  thing  it's  so.  Man's  plow  is 
worse  than  an  earthquake  and  sometimes  he  digs  up  our 
nests  or  poisons  a,nts  on  purpose  whether  they  do  "him  any 
harm  or  not.  %  Then  think  of  the  rain,  the  drouth,  the  wind, 
the  ant-eaters,  and,  worst  of  all,  the  robber  ants. 


30    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

Ants  Keep  Cows. 

KENNETH.  Ants  do  so  many  funny  things — even  keep 
cows.  I  wonder  how  they  get  them  and  if  you  have  any. 

ANT.  We  don't  keep  cows  (plant  lice),  but  you'll  find 
ants  around  here  that  do.  Some  keep  the  cows  in  their 
ant  homes. 

KENNETH.     Go  on  and  tell  us  where  they  get  them. 

ANT.  The  ants  steal  the  eggs  and  take  them  home  and 
hatch  them ;  or,  they  carry  the  queen  plant  louse  home  and 
let  her  lay  eggs  there.  Others  steal  the  baby  cows  and 
raise  them.  But  you'll  find  that  the  ants  around  here 
simply  climb  a  tree  and  milk  the  cows  where  they  pasture. 

KENNETH.  We  must  try  to  find  these  ants  and  go  Avith 
them  to  milk. 

ANT.  Some  ants  kill  the  old  cows  before  taking  the 
young  ones  home. 

KENNETH.  What  is  the  most  common  insect  used  as 
cows  ? 

ANT.  Don't  you  know  the  small,  greenish  or  brownish 
louse  that  gets  on  the  plants  in  your  yard!  Sometimes  it 
is  called  the  aphis  or  aphid.  But  certain  other  insects  may 
also  be  used  as  cows. 

KENNETH.     What  other? 

ANT.  In  India  the  ants  fence  in  the  Brown  Bug  or 
Blue  Caterpillar  and  use  it  for  a  cow.  Most  anywhere 
jumping  plant  lice  and  plant  scales  may  also  be  so  used. 

KENNETH.  How  are  cows  fed  that  are  taken  down 
into  the  dark  nest? 

ANT.  Sometimes  on  the  root-like  parts  of  tiny  mush- 
rooms that  ants  raise  in  the  nest  for  that  purpose,  and 
sometimes  on  the  root  juices  of  other  plants. 


HONEY  ANTS  31 

Crossing  Streams,  Driver  Ants,  Forming  Clusters, 
Honey  Ants. 

ALBERT.  I  heard  that  some  kinds  of  ants  can  cross 
streams. 

CECIL.  Let  me  read  how  it's  done:  "The  ants  cling 
to  one  another  from  the  branch  of  a  tree  over  water.  They 
extend  this  ant  chain  until  the  lower  end  is  in  the  stream 
and  carried  to  the  opposite  shore  by  the  current  of  water 
or  wind.  Then  the  ants  by  the  thousand  cross  the  bridge." 

ALBERT.     Huh ! 

CECIL.  And  that  isn't  all.  "Sometimes  the  several 
thicknesses  of  ants  will  open  up,  making  a  tubular  bridge 
through  which  the  vast  number  of  ants  pass." 

ALBERT :  Is  it  true  that  the  Driver  ants  of  Africa  chase 
large  animals? 

CECIL.  In  their  raids,  these  ants  drive  every  living  land 
animal  before  them,  including  the  black  natives.  Of 
course,  flying  insects  escape,  but  birds  follow  to  capture 
them. 

ANT.  Look  out  and  you'll  find  some  ants  (Ecitons) 
around  here  that  are  as  bad  as  the  Drivers. 

ALBERT.  How  about  some  of  the  ants  of  Africa  and 
South  America  hanging  in  clusters  like  bees? 

CECIL.  Some  of  these  clusters  are  a  yard  through,  and 
have  regular  tunnels  leading  to  the  center. 

ALBERT.  I  read  that  in  Borneo  a  certain  ant  bites  the 
limb  of  a  tree  and  plants  a  seed  in  the  wound.  After  the 
seed  grows  into  a  round  bump,  the  ants  drill  holes  in  it 
for  their  nest.  In  protecting  themselves  from  enemies, 
they  protect  the  tree  from  the  same. 

CECIL.  That's  like  the  red  three-inch  balls  on  this  oak 
bush.  An  insect  punches  a  hole  in  the  limb,  leaves  her 
eggs  in  the  wound,  and  an  oak  ball  grows  and  becomes  the 


32    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

home  of  the  new  family.  Look  at  this  old  ball.  You  can 
see  the  hole  through  which  the  new  family  escaped. 

KENNETH.  A  boy  at  school  told  me  he  found  a  family 
of  ants  living  in  one  of  these  old  oak  balls. 

ALBERT.  Some  kinds  of  ants  live  in  the  thorns  of 
certain  acacia  trees.  The  plant  pays  the  ants  for  defend- 
ing the  tree  with  honey  found  at  the  base  of  each  leaf. 

CECIL.  Yes,  and  this  is  the  same  ant  that  sends  its 
soldiers  down  to  the  foot  of  the  tree  to  keep  away  enemy 
ants  that  want  to  cut  the  leaves  off.  I  suppose  the  tree  is 
glad  to  have  one  kind  of  ant  protect  it  from  the  other  kind. 

Honey  Ants. 

ALBERT.  Is  it  true  that  certain  ants  over  in  Arizona 
hang  up  some  of  their  family  to  the  ceiling — sometimes  as 
many  as  three  hundred — and  use  them  as  honey-pots? 

ANT.  Yes,  and  a  honey-pot  ant  looks  like  a  grain  of 
wheat  attached  to  a  big  cherry.  The  cherry  is  the  pot 
(abdomen).  The  rest  of  the  ant  is  the  grain  of  wheat. 
The  ant  holds  onto  the  ceiling  with  its  claws.  When  it 
happens  to  fall  down  and  tries  to  walk,  its  feet  doesn't 
touch  the  ground  half  the  time,  and  it  has  to  be  helped 
back  to  the  ceiling. 

ALBERT.     How  do  the  other  ants  fill  the  pot? 

ANT.  They  get  some  honey  drops  from  the  skin  of  oak 
galls,  put  it  into  the  mouth  of  the  honey-pot  'ant,  and  she 
swallows  it  and  stores  it  away  in  her  craw.  Then  she 
feeds  it  to  other  hungry  ants.  The  Indians  dig  up  the 
nests  and  break  the  jars  when  they  want  to  get  the  honey. 
The  natives  of  Brazil  and  Central  Africa  think  that  ants 
themselves  make  very  good  eating. 

ALBERT.  I  guess  our  Bean  Gang  better  start  a  honey- 
pot  farm. 


HONEY  ANTS 


33 


HONEY    ANT.      Myrmecocystus    Melliger  var.    Lomaensis. 
Notice    Abdomen.     Named    after   Point    Loma. 


34    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.  I  can  tell  you  and  Ant,  too,  that  there  are  three 
colonies  of  this  honey-ant  (Myrmecocystus  melliger  Wesm. 
subsp.  lomaensis  Wheeler)  within  one  block  of  us  now,  and 
one  of  these  is  not  a  hundred  feet  away.  Contrary  to  the 
rule,  this  ant  works  through  the  heat  of  the  day.  It  has 
good  eyesight,  and,  when  I  first  found  it,  was  wild,  swift 
and  hard  to  catch.  Mr.  Wheeler  called  this  subspecies 
lomaensis  because  some  specimens  were  sent  him  from  our 
Point  Loma. 

FLORENCE.  I  found  one  of  their  nests.  Part  of  the 
dirt  they  carry  out  is  from  the  hardpan.  They  want  a 
good  solid  roof  to  hang  their  honey-jars  on.  I  found  a  big 
pile  of  insect  skeletons  under  a  weed  near  the  nest.  This 
ant  is  black  and  nearly  as  large  as  ours. 

ALBERT.  How  long  may  a  honey-pot  hang  to  the  ceil- 
ing? 

ANT.  For  months  and  perhaps  years.  Maybe  you  know 
some  people  that  would  like  such  a  job. 

ALBERT.  Why  do  you  think  this  ant  has  such  good 
eyesight  ? 

CECIL.  Because  when  I  come  in  sight  the  miners  often 
quit  work,  and  the  food  carriers  hide  or  run  up  weeds,  and 
remain  still  for  a  time.  But  they  are  getting  tamer. 

FLORENCE.  They  work  through  the  hottest  part  of 
the  day,  as  you  said — from  9  a.  m.  to  5  p.  m.  They  search 
for  food  on  the  cement  sidewalk  when  it  is  so  hot  I  can't 
hold  my  hand  on  it. 

CECIL.  They  begin  work  in  the  morning,  about  the 
time  our  harvesters  quit,  and  stop  in  the  evening  about  the 
time  the  harvesters  begin.  In  the  suburbs  of  San  Diego, 
during  the  hottest  part  of  the  day,  you  are  likely  to  find 
one  or  more  on  the  sidewalk  in  nearly  any  block. 


PLAY  35 

ALBERT.  You  wouldn't  be  likely  to  find  any  other  ant 
at  such  a  place  when  it  is  so  hot. 

FLORENCE.  They  hunt  for  plant  secretions  and  for 
dead  insects  as  far  as  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  from 
home.  A  week  after  I  gave  them  a  large  sow  bug  the  skele- 
ton lay  in  the  rubbish  heap. 

CECIL.  I  dropped  a  half-inch  beetle  at  the  door.  A 
worker  gave  it  a  shot  and  paralyzed  it.  I  then  laid  the 
bug  on  the  window  sill,  and  it  didn't  come  to  for  five  hours. 

KENNETH.  These  ants  don't  often  bring  any  seeds 
home,  but  once  in  a  while  they  carry  star  thistle  into  the 
nest. 

CECIL.  I  now  remember  that  a  hundred  or  more 
honey  ants  like  to  loaf  around  on  their  yard  after  a  shower, 
while  it  is  still  drizzling.  The  kings  and  queens  often  do 
the  same.  Their  queens  are  quite  large. 

KENNETH.  In  continuous  light  rains  these  ants  walk 
over  their  yard  all  night.  But  at  such  times  they  are  very 
sluggish.  You  can  easily  pick  them  up  without  seeming  to 
disturb  them.  They  are  not  sensitive  to  danger — don't 
seem  to  know  it  when  you  pick  up  their  queens  at  such 
times. 

ALBERT.  How  different  they  then  act  from  what  they 
do  when  at  work  at  their  usual  time  for  labor — through  the 
hottest  part  of  the  day.  I've  never  seen  it  too  hot  for  them 
to  forage.  The  hotter  it  is  the  faster  they  go  and  the  more 
sensitive  they  are. 

Play. 

KENNETH.    Do  ants  play? 

ANT.  They  are  not  supposed  to  know  enough  to  do 
that, 

DOROTHY.  Why,  I  read  of  queens  that  played  with 
their  servants  at  times  like  a  cat  with  her  kittens — throw- 


36 


ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


ing  them  onto  their  backs  and  hugging  and  kissing  them. 

ALBERT.  Sometimes  an  ant  looks  like  it  is  toting  an- 
other round  for  fun. 

CECIL.  Two  hundred  ants  often  loaf  around  on  the 
yard  of  an  evening,  and  sometimes  a  practical  joker  sounds 
a  false  alarm  or  something  to  frighten  the  timid  ones. 
Looks  like  play  to  me.  I've  seen  a  rooster  perform  this 
same  trick. 

Head,  Jaws  and  Teeth  of  Black  Harvester, 


Body 


—  Peeler 


A  and  D — Jaws  of  young  worker  and  also  of  queen. 

B — Jaws  showing  smooth  worn  edges  of  miner. 

C — Jaws  showing  curved  worn  edges  of  seed-carrier  and  miner, 


BLACK  HARVESTER  37 

CECIL.  The  head  of  one  of  our  ants  is  about  the  size 
of  a  small  pinhead — the  longest  diameters  being  about  one- 
sixteenth  of  an  inch.  The  head  of  the  big  ant  that  visits 
ours  is  about  twice  that  long  and  of  the  small  ones  that 
are  so  common,  only  half  as  long  as  that  of  one  of  ours. 
Nearly  all  ants  have  fierce-looking  jaws. 

ALBERT.  I  see  you  use  your  big  jaws  as  scissors  to  cut 
with,  as  a  comb  to  clean  your  front  legs  with,  as  picks  in 
mining  a  cave  for  a  home,  as  trowels  in  making  earth  pel- 
lets, and  as  shovels  and  baskets  in  moving  earth. 

ANT.  Yes,  and  I  use  them  in  capturing  game  for  food, 
in  holding  food  while  I  eat  it,  in  feeding  others,  in  husking 
seed,  and  sometimes  in  building  walls. 

CECIL.  Your  jaws  are  also  used  in  carrying  rubbish, 
skeletons,  and  sick  and  crippled  ants  out  of  the  house  and 
in  carrying  eggs,  babies,  queens  and  tired  ants.  They  seem 
to  be  your  chief  weapon  of  warfare,  also.  Why,  you 
couldn't  get  along  without  jaws  any  better  than  I  could 
without  hands  and  arms. 

ANT.  No.  You  have  legs  and  arms,  and  I  have  legs 
and  jaws,  and  we  get  along  about  the  same.  Arms  and 
jaws  are  each  many  tools  in  one. 

DOROTHY.    Don't  you  chew  with  your  big  jaws? 

ANT.  Why,  no.  If  your  hands  were  on  your  head,  you 
wouldn't  chew  with  them,  would  you?  They  wouldn't  be 
in  your  mouth,  would  they? 

DOROTHY.  Well,  I  think  your  jaws  might  be  called 
one  of  your  mouth  parts.  I  must  take  my  glass  sometime, 
and  find  out  if  I  can  see  your  real  mouth. 

ANT.  It  is  under  my  big  jaws.  I  can  draw  it  back  or 
push  it  out.  It  has  another  pair  of  weak  flat  jaws  at  the 
sides  to  help  handle  the  food,  and  two  more  pairs  of  little 
feelers.  My  upper  lip  is  long  and  bends  down  over  my 
lower  one,  when  my  mouth  is  shut. 


38    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  I  wish  the  camel  had  a  long  upper  lip  like 
that.  Then  it  wouldn't  look  so  sad.  You  know,  I  think 
you  look  like  a  camel. 

ANT.  My  mouth  would  get  full  of  dust  and  sticks  if  it 
were  not  for  my  overlapping  lip,  my  big  jaws,  and  if  I 
couldn't  draw  my  mouth  back.  I  can  push  my  pharynx 
out  and  shove  the  lid  off  my  mouth  with  it. 

FLORENCE.     Your  "pharynx"?     What's  that! 

ANT.  My  lower  lip  is  on  the  floor  of  my  mouth  and 
my  tongue  is  on  that  lip.  The  food  passes  back  into  the 
pharynx  as  I  am  about  to  swallow,  just  as  yours  does. 

DOROTHY.     You  know  a  lot  for  an  ant. 

ANT.  With  the  sides  of  my  mouth  parts  I  can  scrape 
and  cut  hard  food,  such  as  seed  kernels.  With  my  tongue 
I  can  lick  and  lap  liquids,  and  scrape  with  its  rough  edges. 

DOROTHY.  Must  be  something  like  my  cat's  tongue  or 
our  cow's. 

ANT.  I  can  arrange  my  mouth  parts  into  a  tube 
through  which  I  can  suck.  My  upper  lip  is  split  so  I  can 
use  the  parts  as  fingers.  My  mouth  has  several  other 
handy  parts,  also.  In  fact,  it's  a  great  deal  handier  mouth 
than  yours. 

FLORENCE.     Oh,  I  don't  know. 

KENNETH.     Tell  us  more  about  your  jaws  and  teeth. 

ANT.  Each  jaw  has  a  long,  hard  cutting  edge  and  the 
jaws  work  like  scissors.  Ours  have  teeth  and  also  bristles 
along  the  edges  before  they  are  worn  off  in  mining  and 
carrying  seed. 


BLACK  HARVESTER 


Outside  of  a  Jaw. 
Basket-like  Inside  of  Jaw — Teeth  worn  off. 

FLORENCE.  Why  are  your  jaws  hollowed  out  like  a 
scoop? 

ANT.  So  I  can  use  them  as  baskets  in  carrying  out  dirt 
when  it  is  not  damp  enough  to  make  into  balls. 

FLORENCE.  I'd  think  you  would  smash  your  eggs  and 
babies  carrying  them  in  your  stout  jaws. 

ANT.  I  can  carry  a  bunch  of  babies  as  safely  as  you  can 
carry  one  baby  or  as  gently  as  a  cat  carries  a  kitten. 

KENNETH.  It's  queer  how  the  jaws  will  get  set  and 
hold  onto  an  enemy,  even  after  the  ant's  head  is  cut  off. 
I  have  seen  ants  at  work  with  a  "dead  head"  hanging  to  a 
leg.  I  pried  one  loose  for  an  ant. 


Ant  working  with  "dead-head"  clasped  011  leg. 


40    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ALBERT.  I  suppose  the  ant  would  have  injured  her 
leg  if  she  had  pulled  the  head  loose — broken  the  leg. 

CECIL.  I  read  that  in  South  America  "native  doctors 
will  close  a  wound,  let  the  big  jaws  of  soldier  ants  clasp 
the  edges  of  it,  and  then  cut  their  heads  off.  The  jaws 
still  hold  the  edges  of  the  wound  as  if  sewed  together." 

FLORENCE.  Well,  I  examined  your  mouth  through  a 
glass  today.  It  looked  like  a  round  hole  in  the  bottom  of 
your  skull.  You  had  drawn  it  back.  I  see  now  why  you 
don't  get  jabbed  in  the  mouth  when  running  through 
tangled  weeds. 

ANT.     Uh-hu ! 

FLORENCE.  You  must  be  a  blind  bonehead.  You  are 
always  butting  into  something,  and  yet  never  crack  your 
skull.  I  doubt  if  another  animal  could  digest  it. 

ANT.  My  skull  is  hard  and  thick,  and  in  waves  or  folds. 
That  kind  of  a  sphere  is  hard  to  crush.  But  I  don't  bump 
into  something  as  often  as  you  think  I  do.  I  can  stop 
quickly  after  a  feeler  touches  an  object. 

CECIL.  A  certain  ant  can  snap  its  jaws  together  against 
some  hard  object  and  throw  itself  as  far  as  eighteen  inches. 
In  this  way  it  dodges  its  enemies.  Maybe  you  don't  know 
that  some  ants  can  leap  from  twig  to  twig  a  distance  of 
several  feet.  I  don't  believe  any  ant  can  dodge  sidewise. 

FLORENCE.  I  don't  think  our  ants  could  dodge  any- 
thing. Why  do  they  work  their  jaws  so  slowly,  even  in  a 
fight? 

ALBERT.  Suppose  my  arms  were  razors,  worked  like 
scissors,  and  that  I  was  blind.  I  guess  I  better  not  use 
them  carelessly  in  a  crowd,  especially  if  my  muscles  were 
many  times  stronger  than  they  are.  I  might  behead  some 
of  my  friends  or  cut  their  legs  off.  But  we've  yet  to  learn 
why  the  speed  varies. 


FEELERS  41 

FLORENCE.  I  see.  The  ants  must  have  poise,  as  our 
teacher  says. 

Peelers. 

DOROTHY.    How  about  your  feelers? 

ANT.  Oh,  our  feelers  are  such  wonderful  organs  and 
used  for  so  many  purposes  that  nobody  knows  all  about 
them.  Of  course,  we  have  other  organs  of  sight,  sound, 
smell,  taste  and  feeling.  Our  feelers,  though,  can  do  the 
work  of  these  better,  and  a  lot  of  things  besides. 

DOROTHY.  Then  how  are  we  to  know  anything  about 
the  "lot  of  things"? 

ANT.  You  can't.  I  guess  man  has  special  senses  he 
hasn't  discovered  yet  or  else  he  has  forgotten  about  them. 
Then  why  be  surprised  at  ours? 

DOROTHY.  My  hand  and  arm  together  are  a  little  like 
your  feeler.  You  and  I  each  have  an  elbow  in  our  feelers 
and  we  each  cross  feelers  when  we  meet  our  friends,  don't 
we?  We  call  it  shaking  hands. 

ALBERT.    What  if  you  should  lose  a  feeler? 

ANT.  It  would  be  the  same  for  me  as  removing  the 
front  part  of  your  brain  would  be  for  you.  If  I  should 
lose  my  feelers,  I  couldn't  find  my  way;  I  wouldn't  know 
our  own  ants  or  my  home,  and  I  couldn't  hunt  food,  or 
attend  the  babies,  or  do  anything. 

ALBERT.  Our  teacher  says  that  a  great  man  by  the 
name  of  Darwin  said  that  the  brain  of  an  ant  is  the  most 
wonderful  particle  of  matter  in  the  world. 

ANT.  I  guess  he  meant  to  include  the  feelers.  An 
insect's  feeler  and  a  bat's  wing  are  the  most  sensitive 
organs  in  nature.  The  bat's  brain  is  spread  out  over  its 
wings  and  the  insect's,  over  its  feelers. 


42    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ALBERT.  Why  do  you  keep  your  feelers  on  the  move 
all  the  time? 

ANT.  Why  do  you  hold  your  hands  out  and  move  them 
when  you  are  walking  through  the  brush  in  the  dark? 
Besides,  our  feelers  give  us  much  more  information  than 
your  hands  give  you. 

ALBERT.  If  different  kinds  of  ants  should  conclude  to 
go  into  partnership  and  live  in  the  same  nest,  would  they 
cross  feelers  when  they  meet  each  other? 

ANT.     Yes,  but  not  unless  they  were  in  partnership. 

ALBERT.  I  have  several  joints  in  the  outer  half  of  my 
feeler,  counting  my  hand  and  wrist. 

ANT.  I  have  eleven  joints  in  the  outer  half  of  my 
feeler,  but  only  one  in  the  other  half — a  good  deal  like 
yours. 

ALBERT.  How  do  you  hide  your  feelers — how  fix  them 
to  keep  them  from  being  bitten  off? 

ANT.  I  fold  them  at  the  elbow  and  lay  them  up  and 
down  close  against  my  head.  I  fix  them  that  way  when  I 
talk  to  strange  ants  and  bugs. 

How  Ants  Got  Scattered  Over  the  World. 

CECIL.  As  ants  are  found  nearly  everywhere,  I'd  like 
to  know  how  they  get  to  so  many  places. 

ANT.  They  float  on  logs;  form  a  ball  of  ants  and  float; 
and  ride  on  animals,  ships  and  railroad  trains.  They  also 
walk,  but  that's  a  slow  way  to  travel.  Queens  may  fly  or 
be  blown  a  long  distance  to  form  new  colonies. 

The  Garden  Ant. 
DOROTHY.     Look  at  these  little  ants.     I  see  them  around 


THE  GARDEN  ANT  43 

here  everywhere.  Their  craters  are  only  about  three  or 
four  inches  across.  They  build  nearly  up  to  the  door  of 
our  ants.  What  shall  I  call  them? 

ANT.     Suppose  you  call  them  the  Garden  Ant. 


44    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  III. 

July  16  to  July  24. 

The  Big  Ant,  Carpenters, 

FLORENCE.  I'd  like  to  know  why  so  many  of  these 
large  ants  visit  ours  and  why  so  many  of  their  dead  bodies 
are  brought  home  by  ours. 

CECIL.  We'll  call  that  the  Big  ant  until  we  find  out  its 
name.  When  I  left  one  of  the  Big  ants  at  the  door  of  ours 
today,  it  snapped  at  ours,  but  I  guess  it  was  only  a  pre- 
tense because  no  attention  was  paid  to  it. 

KENNETH.  I  threw  a  crushed  one  near  the  door.  Why 
did  all  your  ants  shy  around  it  so? 

ANT.  A  dangerous  acid  was  set  free  from  her  body, 
and  we  smelled  it. 

KENNETH.  About  two  hundred  of  yours  were  shocked 
or  something,  I  hardly  know  what.  They  raised  their 
bodies  as  high  as  they  could  reach  and  trembled  all  at 
once. 

ANT.  Probably  some  ant  gave  the  danger  signal  on 
account  of  that  acid  and  others  repeated  the  message. 

DOROTHY.  Sometimes  yours  seem  very  nervous  when 
a  Big  ant  is  killed  near  them  and  sometimes  they  don't. 
Why  is  this? 

ANT.  It  depends  on  whether  or  not  any  odor  has  been 
set  free  to  warn  them. 

DOROTHY.  I  left  a  Big  ant  at  your  door  and  it  ran 
away.  I  brought  it  back  and  it  ran  into  your  house,  but 
soon  rushed  out.  I  haven't  found  its  home  yet. 


THE  BIG  ANT  CARPENTERS.  45 

ANT.  It  hides  its  nest,  or  makes  it  where  it  will  not  be 
noticed. 

FLORENCE.  That  ant  is  a  giant— half  an  inch  long,  or 
twice  your  length,  and  four  times  as  long  as  these  Garden 
ants.  It  has  a  single  hump  on  its  back  instead  of  a  double 
one,  as  you  have. 

ANT.    Go  on. 

FLORENCE.  It  likes  sugar  better  than  you  do;  is 
smarter  than  you;  goes  alone  while  out  foraging,  and  you 
are  not  afraid  of  it.  Its  jaws  are  coarse  saw-toothed, 
instead  of  being  edged  like  yours. 

ANT.    Yes. 

FLORENCE.  One  after  another  I  got  five  of  your  ants 
on  the  end  of  a  straw  and  shoved  each  into  the  face  of  the 
Big  ant  as  she  was  eating  a  lump  of  sugar  at  your  door. 
She  simply  moved  out  of  the  way  and  kept  on  eating.  It 
took  her  half  an  hour  to  get  enough. 

ALBERT.  I  suppose  everybody  in  town  knows  the  Big 
ant,  as  it  is  found  in  many  door  yards  and  is  often  seen 
walking  on  the  sidewalk. 

FLORENCE.  Every  morning  I  find  the  bodies  of  six 
to  twelve  of  these  ants  at  your  door.  Will  you  explain? 

ANT.  Don't  be  too  sure  that  we  capture  it  alive.  Watch 
and  you  will  learn.  We  are  plodding  hard  workers  and 
don't  look  for  trouble.  We  are  slow,  careful,  not  inclined 
to  fight,  and  mind  our  own  business.  We  don't  try  to 
make  a  living  off  the  wits  of  others. 

KENNETH.  I  counted  five  teeth  on  each  jaw  of  the 
Big  ant.  Such  jaws  could  capture,  hold  and  tear  an 
enemy  and  cut  fruit. 

ANT.  Some  day  you  will  learn  how  they  are  used  in 
house  making. 


46   ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

KENNETH.  That  ant  hardly  ever  carries  anything  in 
its  jaws,  but  I  saw  one  take  a  fly  home  today. 

ANT.  It  generally  gets  liquid  food,  swallows  it,  and 
takes  it  home  in  its  abdomen  (craw).  Some  ants  have  a 
tube  through  each  jaw  or  a  groove  along  the  side,  through 
which  they  suck  fluids. 

ALBERT.  Yours  often  carry  in  parts  of  the  Big  ant,  but 
pretend  not  to  take  the  whole  body  into  the  house.  I'm 
certain  you  use  this  ant  for  food. 

ANT.     Pretend  how? 

ALBERT.  The  body  is  carried  clear  up  to  the  door  and 
then  back  a  few  inches  and  left. 

ANT.  We  first  go  clear  up  to  the  door  so  we  will  know 
just  where  we  are  and  can  then  leave  the  bodies  right 
where  we  want  them.  Flesh  moulds  in  our  damp  house 
and  keeps  better  outside.  Does  man  ever  dry  meat  in  the 
sun — or  does  he  dry  it  in  the  cellar? 

CECIL.  Maybe  you  leave  them  outside  as  scarecrows, 
or  so  other  animals  will  eat  them  instead  of  you.  When  I 
left  some  of  them  at  your  very  door,  you  carried  them 
back  one  to  three  inches. 

ALBERT.  I  see  you  often  touch  noses  with  the  friendty 
Big  ant,  but  you  both  keep  your  feelers  well  laid  back 
against  your  heads. 

KENNETH.  I  carried  one  of  these  ants  in  a  bottle  and 
let  it  out  by  the  door  of  a  colony  like  our  ants.  A  hundred 
of  them  surrounded  it  and  wouldn't  let  it  go.  They  all 
got  into  a  fight.  The  stranger  was  getting  the  worst  of  it 
because  its  feelers  got  caught  in  the  coil  of  a  filaree  seed. 

FLORENCE.     Why  didn't  you  help  the  Big  ant? 

KENNETH.  I  picked  it  up  and  removed  the  trap.  It 
then  grabbed  one  of  the  other  ants,  held  it  a  while, 
dropped  it  unharmed,  and  escaped. 


THE  BIG  ANT,  CARPENTERS.  47 

FLORENCE.  Say,  Ant,  please  tell  us  the  name  of  the 
Big  ant. 

ANT.  It  is  Camponotus  (Myrmoturba)  maculatus  Fabr. 
subsp.  vicinus  Mayr.  Var.  luteangulus  "Wheeler. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  what  do  you  think  o'  that!  The 
name  of  a  prince.  No  wonder  it's  the  biggest  ant  in  the 
world.  Oh,  I  mean  its  everyday  name. 

ANT.     Its  common  name  is  Carpenter  Ant. 

FLORENCE.  It  must  be  a  regular  beaver.  Well,  if  it 
is  a  Carpenter,  I  suppose  it  builds  its  nest  in  wood.  Now 
111  find  it.  The  books  say  that  Carpenters  gnaw  galleries 
in  trees  with  their  big  jaws  and  make  their  homes  in  them, 
but  that  sometimes  they  will  use  the  vacated  house  of  a 
woodworm  or  of  something  else. 

ANT.  They  can  make  their  house  in  the  hardest  kind 
of  wood,  but  partly  decayed  wood  is  easier  to  chisel  out. 

FLORENCE.  As  there  are  no  trees  around  here,  I  don't 
know  where  to  look  for  the  nest. 

ANT.  You'll  be  surprised  some  day  that  you  didn't  find 
it  long  ago. 

ALBERT.  The  jaws  of  the  Carpenter  seem  to  be  chisel, 
ax,  pinchers  and  saw  all  combined  in  one  tool.  All  right 
for  wood  as  well  as  for  other  things. 

ANT.  As  there  is  no  wood  here,  don't  be  too  sure  you 
will  find  that  ant's  nest  in  trees  in  southern  California. 

FLORENCE.  I  thank  you.  You  nearly  forgot  and  told 
me  something.  I  suppose  that  the  ant  is  like  man  and  can 
adapt  itself  to  almost  anything. 

DOROTHY.  It  must  be  great  to  be  a  fine  big  ant  like 
the  Carpenter. 

CECIL.  Yes,  but  its  large  size  is  against  it,  for  other 
animals  can  see  it  and  capture  it  for  food.  No  wonder  it 
hides  its  nest,  goes  it  alone,  and  so  often  loses  its  life. 


48    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  Most  women  don't  like  the  Carpenter  very 
well,  for  once  in  a  while  it  gets  into  the  sugar  bowl. 

ANT.  Yes,  it  is  learning  to  be  a  house  ant  and  a  city 
ant  since  the  discovery  of  America.  Some  ants  are  like 
some  men — they  move  to  town  when  they  should  stay  in 
the  country. 

ALBERT.  They  say  this  ant  is  easily  destroyed  with  a 
little  carbon  disulphide  solution  if  you  can  find  the  nest. 

KENNETH.  They  say  the  Carpenters  never  make  trails, 
but  they  do  sometimes.  I  saw  one  an  inch  wide  and  many 
feet  long.  It  led  to  a  watered  lawn,  and  was  as  good  a 
trail  as  any  ant  could  make,  but  notice  the  width.  This 
ant  goes  single  file  and  doesn't  need  a  wide  trail. 

ALBERT.  I  know  a  Carpenter  colony  that  is  using  a 
cement  walk  as  a  trail  for  sixty  feet.  A  colony  like  ours  is 
using  the  edge  of  the  same  walk  and  some  small  ants  are 
playing  safe  by  using  the  crease  down  the  center. 

DOROTHY.     Why  do  so  many  of  the  Carpenters  die? 

ANT.  They  are  so  large  that  they  are  easily  seen,  and 
so  you  just  think  more  of  them  die  than  others.  Still,  7,000 
a  year  may  die  on  this  lot.  Ants  don't  live  forever. 

ALBERT.  The  Carpenters  have  an  awful  time  fighting 
bugs,  bees,  flies  and  yellow  jackets  to  keep  them  away  from 
that  pile  of  fruit  parings.  The  jaws  are  good  weapons,  all 
right. 

CECIL.  Yes.  That  ant  drives  these  insects  away  just 
like  a  dog  chases  chickens. 

ALBERT.  You  dragged  the  body  of  a  Carpenter  home. 
Another  one  followed  the  trail,  examined  the  body,  and 
then  walked  around  among  your  ants. 

ANT.  We  are  on  good  terms  with  that  ant.  You  never 
see  us  fight. 


MUSIC   BOX,   INSTRUMENTS. 


49 


Music  Box,  Wind  Instruments,  Stringed  Instruments. 
See  "Ants,"  Wheeler,  p.  27. 

KENNETH.  One  day  you  said  an  ant  told  another 
something.  Tell  us  about  your  talking  machine. 

ANT.  You  see  the  very  slim  pedicel  that  connects  my 
abdomen  to  the  part  the  legs  are  on? 

KENNETH.     Yes,  and  it  has  two  humps  on  it. 

ANT.  Well,  there  is  a  file  on  my  abdomen  (gaster)  next 
to  that  pedicel.  There  is  a  sharp  plate  on  the  last  hump 
of  the  pedicel  and  I  can  make  that  plate  scrape  on  the 
file  and  make  a  noise. 

KENNETH.  Do  all  kinds  of  ants  carry  this  phonograph 
with  them? 


50    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ANT.  The  Carpenter  has  none.  No  ant  has  a  better 
one  than  ours. 

FLORENCE.     Well,  I  can't  find -it  and  I  can't  hear  it. 

ANT.     Maybe  the  note  is  too  high  for  man  to  hear. 

FLORENCE.     That  may  be  noise,  but  it  isn't  music. 

ANT.  But  some  ants  that  belong  to  our  family  have  a 
coarse  file  and  a  fine  one  beside  it.  That  would  be  as  good 
as  your  ukulele. 

FLORENCE.  All  right.  Your  orchestra  is  engaged  for 
our  ccmmencement,  some  years  hence. 

KENNETH.  When  I  hold  an  ant  by  the  leg  over  some 
other  ants,  I  can't  see  that  it  holloes  for  help.  The  other 
ants  pay  no  attention. 

ALBERT.  Maybe  an  ant  wouldn't  hollo  at  such  times. 
Why  endanger  the  lives  of  the  other  ants? 

FLORENCE.  There  is  a  lot  of  music  going  to  waste, 
isn't  there? 

ANT.    All  yours  is  wasted  so  far  as  I'm  concerned. 

KENNETH.  Eighteen  inches  from  the  trail  I  scratched 
on  the  hard  ground  with  a  small  stick  for  ten  minutes. 
Eighteen  ants  left  the  trail  and  came  toward  me  four  to 
nine  inches,  but  all  returned  except  two  that  hid  under 
some  weeds. 

CECIL.  Some  think  that  ants  can't  hear  at  all  except 
through  the  ground  and  their  feet.  As  I  can  feel  sound 
waves  through  water  with  my  body,  so  an  ant  may  feel 
sound  waves  through  earth  with  its  feet. 

KENNETH.  I  suppose  they  can  hear  through  air.  I 
cracked  two  small  stones  together  for  quite  a  while  two 
feet  from  a  group  of  ants.  In  time  they  all  became  excited 
and  five  came  straight  to  the  stones.  Two  of  the  five  tried 
to  bite  them,  while  a  third  got  cold  feet,  grabbed  a  stick 
and  ran. 

CECIL.    Maybe  they  heard  through  the  ground. 


MUSIC  BOX,  INSTRUMENTS  51 

KENNETH.  They  don't  pay  any  attention  to  a  tin  can 
when  I  hammer  it  near  the  nest. 

FLORENCE.  Why  don't  you  have  some  kind  of  a  horn 
or  wind  instrument? 

ANT.  Something  like  a  man's  nose,  for  instance?  Well, 
I  have.  A  number  of  little  breathing  pores  on  my  body  do 
the  trick.  A  little  plate  over  the  entrance  of  each  pore 
vibrates  and  makes  a  noise  when  I  force  breath  over  it. 
See? 

CECIL.  There  are  about  twenty  of  the  pores  (spiracles) 
— some  on  the  abdomen  and  some  on  the  body  near  the  legs. 

FLORENCE.  After  the  wings  of  a  fly  have  been  re- 
moved I  can  still  hear  it  buzz,  but  I  can't  hear  you. 

ANT.  You  could  if  there  were  enough  of  us  together. 
Why,  you  can  hear  a  queen  buzz  several  inches  away. 

FLORENCE.  All  of  you  ought  to  have  wings  and  then 
you  could  stand  in  your  door  and  buzz  and  make  a  draft 
to  ventilate  your  house  like  bees  and  winged  ants  do.  I 
suppose  your  buzzers  aren't  as  good  a  talking  machine  as 
your  phonograph.  What  else  you  got? 

ANT.  Some  ants  have  eight  pairs  of  stringed  instru- 
ments. We  have  more  than  that,  besides  a  pair  in  each 
feeler,  but  man  isn't  certain  that  they  are  for  making 
sound,  and  I  won't  tell.  Man  doesn't  know  what  the  little 
umbrella-shaped  bodies  in  the  pits  on  our  jaws  and  joints 
are  for,  either. 

CECIL.  Maybe  these  are  parts  of  your  wireless  outfit. 
An  ant's  stringed  instrument  might  feel  a  sound  and  act 
as  a  sense  of  touch.  Seeing  is  by  sense  of  touch,  anyway. 
The  waves  do  the  touching. 

FLORENCE.  Listen  at  that  grasshopper  fiddling.  He  is 
drawing  the  file  on  his  thigh  across  his  wings.  Sounds 
kind  o'  nice. 

CECIL.     Yes,  and  look  at  this  ant  sliding  the  plates  of 


52    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

its  abdomen  back  and  forth  on  each  other,  as  if  breathing. 
These  plates  have  files  on  the  overlapping  edges  and  so  the 
ant,  too,  may  be  fiddling — or  is  it  just  running  that  phono- 
graph? Just  think  of  all  the  talking  machines  our  ants 
have!  ,  ,i  j 

FLORENCE.  See  if  you  can  make  a  noise  by  stamping 
your  foot  on  the  ground.  Ha,  ha,  ha ! 

ANT.  You  needn't  laugh.  Some  colonies  can  make  a 
noise  like  a  rattlesnake  makes  by  butting  their  heads 
against  the  walls  of  their  house  or  by  striking  the  walls 
with  their  abdomens.  They  butt  for  the  same  reason  a 
rattler  rattles,  too. 

Parts  of  an  Ant.    Craw,  Gizzard,  Hair. 

CECIL.    I  can't  make  out  the  parts  of  an  ant. 

ANT.  You  surely  know  the  legs,  feelers  and  head.  The 
large  back  part  of  an  ant  is  called  the  abdomen,  and  you 
know  that,  too.  The  part  the  legs  are  on  is  called  the 
thorax,  and  the  little  tube  that  connects  the  thorax  and 
abdomen  is  called  the  pedicel. 

CECIL.    Is  the  pedicel  a  part  of  the  abdomen? 

ANT.  Yes,  and  its  two  parts  plus  the  four  plates  on 
top  of  the  abdomen  make  six  in  all  for  our  kind  of  ant. 
Even  the  back  part  of  the  thorax  is  really  a  part  of  the 
abdomen. 

CECIL.  I  can  see  three  plates,  or  parts,  to  your  thorax, 
too. 

ANT.  The  two  long,  sharp  spines  at  the  back  part  of 
the  thorax  protect  the  pedicel  from  the  bite  of  enemies. 

FLORENCE.  You  have  two  humps  on  your  pedicel,  but 
the  Carpenter  has  only  one.  Come  to  think  of  it,  there 
are  single  humped  and  double  humped  camels. 


PARTS  OF  AN  ANT  53 

ANT.     Hem! 

FLORENCE.  I  have  read  that  the  camel  stores  food  and 
fat  in  its  humps.  AVhat  are  yours  for? 

ANT.     You'll  have  to  guess. 

FLORENCE.  I  see  that  you  have  two  toes  on  each  foot, 
the  same  as  the  camel  has. 

ANT.  The  two  sharp  claws  are  for  digging,  scratching, 
and  for  holding  onto  rough  walls. 

FLORENCE.  But  a  fly  can  beat  you.  It  can  walk  up 
glass,  for  it  has  something  sticky  on  its  feet. 

ANT.  I  also  have  an  oily  substance  between  my  claws 
and  can  walk  up  glass. 

FLORENCE.    A  camel  can  go  a  long  time  without  water. 

ANT.     But  not  nearly  so  long  as  I  can. 

KENNETH.  When  you  rasp  food  off  a  hard  seed  or  off 
dried  meat  I  don't  see  how  you  can  swallow  it.  It  wouldn't 
go  through  the  slim  pedicel. 

ANT.  I  don't  swallow  it.  No  ant  swallows  solid  food. 
I  put  the  flour  or  meat  into  that  little  dust  pocket  under 
the  base  of  my  tongue,  dampen  it,  take  out  the  part  I  need, 
swallow  the  liquid  food,  and  dump  the  solid  part  out. 

DOROTHY.  A  good  deal  like  I  press  the  juice  out  of 
fruit  in  my  mouth  when  I  don't  want  to  swallow  the  solid 
part. 

FLORENCE.  One  day  Kenneth  spoke  of  your  craw. 
Ha,  ha,  ha !  An  ant  has  a  craw !  Like  a  chicken's,  I  sup- 
pose? 

ANT.  Yes,  somewhat.  But  an  ant's  craw  is  a  sack  for 
holding  liquid  food.  This  food  can  be  passed  on  from  the 
craw  into  the  stomach  or  pumped  back  to  the  mouth  to 
feed  babies,  queens,  hungry  ants,  pets  or  other  guests. 

FLORENCE.  An  ant  must  have  a  first-class  stomach 
pump  (gizzard). 


54         ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ANT.  She  has.  It  pumps  the  food  into  the  craw  and 
then  pumps  it  from  the  craw  into  the  stomach;  or,  as  some 
think,  back  to  the  mouth  to  feed  others. 

CECIL.  I  see.  The  large  abdomen  is  the  storehouse  for 
liquid  food  that  may  be  drawn  on  for  months  if  other 
foods  be  scarce,  or  it  may  be  the  only  way  to  carry  liquid 
food  home  to  the  family,  as  the  Carpenter  has  to  do. 

ANT.  That  ant  couldn't  store  her  liquid  food  in  a  gran- 
ary, like  we  do  seeds,  of  course. 

ALBERT.  How  can  you  raise  your  abdomen  with  those 
two  sharp  spines  pointing  back  toward  it? 

ANT.  The  spines  are  far  enough  apart  to  let  the  pedicel 
slip  up  between  them. 

FLORENCE.  I'm  surprised  at  the  number  of  hairs  when 
I  look  at  you  through  the  glass. 

ANT.  You  have  hairs  all  over  you,  too,  except  the 
bottom  of  your  feet,  the  palm  of  your  hands,  and  the  last 
joint  of  your  fingers  and  toes.  As  I  have  told  you,  some 
of  our  hairs  are  changed  into  organs  that  have  many  uses — 
many  that  man  can  never  understand.  Touch  some  hairs 
on  the  back  of  your  hand  and  see  if  you  can  understand 
how  we  use  them  as  organs  of  touch.  Do  the  hairs  ever 
tell  you  when  a  fly  is  walking  on  your  arm? 

FLORENCE.     Go  on. 

ANT.  Our  hairs  are  coarse  and  long  on  the  body,  shorter 
and  more  of  them  on  the  legs,  and  very  short  and  still 
more  of  them  on  the  feelers.  Some  of  them  don't  look  like 
hairs. 

DOROTHY.  I  notice  that  miners  wear  theirs  off — 
against  weeds  and  the  walls  of  the  house,  I  suppose. 

ANT.  Hairs  are  movable  at  the  base  and  have  nerves 
entering  them. 


PARTS  OF  AN  ANT  55 

Eyes. 

FLORENCE.  You  have  big  eyes,  but  if  you  cau't  see 
with  them  they  are  all  a  sham. 

KENNETH.  Maybe  an  ant's  eyes  gather  up  enough 
light  so  it  can  see  a  little  even  in  its  dark  house  or  at 
night.  Ants  might  see  where  we  are  blind.  Many  animals 
can  see  in  the  dark. 

ALBERT.  You  have  big  eyes  on  either  side  of  your 
head  and  are  supposed  to  have  three  small  ones  on  top  of 
your  head,  but  I  can't  find  them. 

ANT.  Our  workers  have  none  on  top,  but  our  kings  and 
queens  have. 

FLORENCE.  What  are  the  names  of  your  different 
kinds  of  eyes? 

ANT.  All  our  kind  of  ants  have  a  big  lateral  eye  on 
each  side  of  the  head,  and  our  kings  have  three  good 
medial  eyes  on  top  of  the  head,  besides  they  have  lateral 
eyes.  The  queens  have  lateral  eyes,  but  two  of  the  medial 
eyes  are  poor.  Workers  have  no  medial  eyes.  Medial  eyes 
are  supposed  to  see  short  distances. 

CECIL.  The  king,  the  gentleman  of  the  family,  has 
wonderful  eyesight,  and  I  suppose  can  see  queens  and 
other  kings  as  they  sail  swiftly  through  the  air  at  flying 
time.  My  eyes  would  be  no  good  for  him. 

ALBERT.    How  do  blind  ants  see  each  other  in  the  air? 

FLORENCE.  You  have  big  eyes,  but  can't  see  much. 
You  are  going  entirely  blind  because  you  have  taken  to 
living  in  a  cave  and  to  working  all  night.  Have  some  ants 
110  eyes  at  all? 

ANT.  You'll  find  some  around  here  that  have  none. 
Some  ants  never  come  above  ground  except  at  flying  time. 


56        ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN- 

Of   course,   many   of   these   are   eyeless,   like   some   of   the 
insects  in  Mammoth  Cave. 

CECIL.  You  must  remember  that  many  animals  can  see 
light  with  certain  cells  of  the  skin — earthworms  and  sev- 
eral animals  of  the  sea,  for  instance. 

How  to  Tell  an  Ant  from  Another  Insect. 

ALBERT.  How  can  I  tell  an  ant  from  another  insect. 
Some  that  look  like  ants  are  not. 

ANT.  Notice  the  slim  pedicel  that  connects  the  two 
large  parts  of  an  ant's  body.  An  ant  can  fold  its  body  at 
the  joints  of  this  pedicel  and  double  its  abdomen  under  its 
body  or  over  its  back,  or  whirl  it  round  and  round.  The 
pedicel  of  an  ant  has  one  or  two  humps  or  scales  on  it. 

The  Name  of  Our  Ant.     A  Letter  from  Mr.  Wheeler. 

FLORENCE.  Say,  Ant,  you  gave  us  the  name  of  the 
big  Carpenter;  give  us  yours. 

ANT.  My  new  name  is  Veramessor  andrei  Mayer,  but 
my  old  name  is  Stenamma  andrei  Emery. 

FLORENCE.  There  you  go  again.  I  don't  care  any- 
thing about  your  old  name  or  your  new  name.  What  I 
want  is  your  handy  name. 

ANT.  You  may  call  me  the  Black  Harvester  Ant,  but 
there  are  other  Black  Harvesters — one  near  here  is  shiny 
black. 

FLORENCE.  I  wonder  in  what  parts  of  the  world  our 
ants  live? 

CECIL.  Many  about  like  ours  live  in  different  parts  of 
the  earth,  but  our  particular  kind  lives  in  this  part  of  the 
United  States  and  over  the  line  in  Mexico. 

FLORENCE.     What  are  you  reading,  Albert? 

ALBERT.  As  president  of  the  Bean  Gang,  I  have  re- 
ceived this  letter  in  answer  to  ours  to  Mr.  Wheeler: 


THE  NAME  OF  OUR  ANT  57 

Dear  Children: 

I  have  identified  the  ant  you  are  studying  as  Vera- 
messor  andrei  Mayer.  I  would  say  that  Veramessor  is 
simply  a  synonym  of  Messor  and  Stenamma.  Origin- 
ally all  these  ants  were  placed  in  the  genus  Stenamma 
by  Emery,  and  later  he  and  Forel  called  some  of  the 
California  species  Messors,  thus  placing  them  in  a 
genus  which  is  common  in  the  Mediterranean  region. 
Later  it  was  found  that  the  wing  venation  of  the  Cali- 
fornia forms  is  different  from  that  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Messors,  so  Forel  suggested  the  genus  Vera- 
messor for  our  southwestern  species.  There  seems  to 
be  several  of  these,  some  of  them  occurring  in  Lower 
California.  If  you  get  over  into  Lower  California, 
you  might  make  some  interesting  discoveries  in  the 
species  of  this  genus.  Yours  very  sincerely, 

W.  H.  WHEELER. 
Forest  Hills,  Boston,  Mass. 

Mr.  Wheeler  says  our  kind  of  ants  hasn't  been  studied 
much.  I  wish  somebody  would  write  a  book  on  Ants,  for 
children,  like  Dr.  Wheeler  has  for  grown  people.  We  have 
more  time  to  study  ants  than  grown-ups  have. 

CECIL.  We  all  thank  Dr.  Wheeler  for  his  help,  also 
Dr.  C.  W.  Woodworth  of  the  University  of  California  for 
his  Bulletin  No.  207,  College  of  Agriculture,  and  Dr.  Henry 
McCook  for  his  interesting  books  on  Ants. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  I'm  now  acquainted  with  a  real 
carpenter  and  a  real  farmer — I  mean  harvester.  I  guess 
they  are  both  well  named.  I  never  saw  other  such  har- 
vesters as  ours  are. 


58    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

Kenneth's  Experiment. 

DOROTHY.  What  on  earth  have  you  in  that  half-pint 
bottle,  Kenneth? 

KENNETH.  Three  of  our  ants;  six  of  our  kind,  but 
from  another  colony;  four  Carpenters;  one  live  fly;  one 
dead  fly — fifteen  in  all.  I  want  to  see  who'll  get  the  fly. 

ANT.     They  are  in  prison  and  will  not  act  as  if  free. 

KENNETH.  I'll  make  them  act  some  way  for  I've 
dropped  a  bee  into  the  bottle.  One  of  the  Carpenters  is 
carrying  the  dead  fly  around. 

ALBERT.  Look !  The  four  Carpenters  have  tackled  the 
bee,  and  one  of  them  has  closed  its  jaws  on  one  of  the 
hind  legs  and  she  has  stung  it  to  death.  I'll  take  the  bee 
out  or  they  will  kill  her. 

FLORENCE.     Well,  what  are  you  dancing  about? 

ALBERT.  Pull  this  stinger  out  of  my  finger !  Can't  you 
see  anything  ?  Get  a  move  on  you ! 

CECIL.  I  suppose  the  bee  could  pull  its  stinger  out  of 
the  soft  joint  of  the  ant  it  stung,  but  not  out  of  the  tough 
skin  of  your  finger.  You  know  the  stinger  has  barbs  on  it 
like  a  fishhook  has. 

FLORENCE.  Ours  can't  quit  work.  See  them  carrying 
pieces  of  straw  around. 

KENNETH.  Of  the  four  Carpenters,  one  is  eight  times 
as  large  as  the  others.  They  say  the  largest  ants  of  a 
colony  can  stand  the  greatest  hardship.  Let's  leave  them 
all  until  morning. 

DOROTHY.     But  Florence   and  I'll  not   be  here  in  the 

morning. 

*****       * 

ALBERT.  Good  morning,  boys.  Well,  what  have  you 
got  in  the  bottle? 

KENNETH.      Here's    the    report:      The    two    flies— The 


KENNETH'S  EXPERIMENT  59 

dead  one  is  still  dead;  the  live  one  is  dead,  too.  The  four 
Carpenters — No.  1,  stung  to  death  yesterday;  No.  2,  dead 
with  one  foot  in  jaws  of  one  of  our  ants;  No.  3,  cannot 
turn  over  when  placed  on  its  back ;  No.  4,  the  big  one, 
seems  well.  The  nine  ants  of  our  colony  and  of  the  other 
colony  like  ours — No.  1,  head  cut  off;  No.  2,  abdomen  cut 
off;  No.  3,  dead;  No.  4,  Carpenter  cutting  abdomen  off; 
No.  5,  dying  with  foot  of  Carpenter  in  jaws;  Nos.  6,  7,  8 
and  9  seem  all  right. 

CECIL.  That's  an  awful  report.  We  must  never  do 
such  a  thing  again. 

KENNETH.  We  didn't  know  they  would  fight.  But 
I'm— 

ALBERT.  Well,  look!  No.  6  is  dead,  and  No.  7  has 
lost  its  legs. 

CECIL.  The  two  that  are  left  are  climbing  onto  the 
back  of  the  big  Carpenter  and  running  their  faces  into  its 
face  as  if  they  wanted  to  be  killed,  also. 

KENNETH.  Why,  the  big  Carpenter  has  fallen  over 
dead,  too. 

ALBERT.  I'll  leave  the  two  of  our  kind— the  only 
insects  of  the  sixteen  that  are  now  alive — by  the  door  of 
our  ants.  Look !  One  of  them  is  walking  into  the  house, 
but  the  other  is  running  away. 

CECIL.  Maybe  the  one  that  is  running  away  belongs 
to  the  other  colony. 

KENNETH.  Well,  we've  learned  something,  anyway.  A 
bee  can  sting  an  ant  to  death,  and  a  number  of  Carpenters 
can  kill  a  bee. 

ALBERT.  Yes,  and  the  Carpenter  will  use  his  jaws  on 
other  ants  if  cornered.  And  the  largest  of  the  Carpenters 
>vas  the  last  to  die — just  as  we  expected. 

CECIL,    Here  come  the  girls.    Let's  not  talk  about  it. 


60    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  IV. 
July  24  to  July  30. 
Florence  and  Ant. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  Ant,  have  you  been  learning  any- 
thing lately? 

ANT.  Just  compare  my  actions  with  those  of  the  most 
stupid  person  you  know.  Why,  I  have  "psychic  plasticity." 

FLORENCE.  I  don't  know  what  that  is,  but  I  hope  it 
isn't  catching.  I  still  think  you  are  stupid.  You  won't 
follow  the  smooth  path  I  made  for  you  through  the  tan- 
gled grass. 

ANT.     Is  that  all? 

FLORENCE.  You  often  butt  each  other  in  the  head,  run 
over  workers,  ride  on  loads,  don't  know  when  I'm  helping 
you  push  a  load,  and  hold  onto  a  seed  while  I  carry  you 
sixty  feet  and  don't  know  what's  happening. 

ANT.     Go  on,  if  you're  not  run  down? 

FLORENCE.  You  are  slow  to  detect  an  enemy,  and 
have  entirely  too  many  visitors.  Ants,  both  larger  and 
smaller,  come  among  yours,  dodge  them,  out-run  them,  and 
deceive  them. 

ANT.  It's  my  time  to  sleep.  Wake  me  up  when  you 
are  done* 

FLORENCE.  Hard  work  in  the  fields  has  made  you  dull. 
You  don't  hunt  live  game  for  food  or  fun.  You  let  the  rest 
do  your  thinking  and  hardly  ever  strike  out  alone.  Better 
wake  up. 

ANT.     Do  not  thousands  of  us  live  together  in  an  or- 


ODOR.   SENSE  OF  SMELL.  DADDY  LONGLEGS      61 

derly  community?  Have  we  not  high  social  instincts?  Can 
we  not  cross  difficult  places?  Do  we  not  help  one  another 
in  providing  homes,  food,  nurses,  defense?  You  know  we 
will  give  our  lives  to  protect  our  homes. 

FLORENCE.  Oh,  I  don't  know.  I've  never  seen  you 
do  so  yet. 

ANT.  Do  we  not  care  for  our  young?  Do  we  not  forget 
injuries  and  go  to  work  as  bravely  as  ever?  Can't  we 
tell  each  other  things?  When  we  are  doing  one  thing, 
do  we  not  see  after  everything  else  that  needs  attention? 

FLORENCE.     Pinch  me  when  you  are  done. 

ANT.  Are  we  not  hard  workers?  Are  we  not  peaceable, 
cleanly,  and  good  housekeepers?  Does  each  not  work  for 
others  first  and  self  last  ?  Do  foremen  have  to  drive  us  to 
work  or  see  that  we  do  it  right? 

FLORENCE.     Oh,  hum ! 

ANT.  Have  we  any  need  of  jails  and  taxes?  Do  we  not 
mind  our  own  business?  Do  we  have  to  go  to  school  to 
learn  how  to  live  and  be  useful? 

FLORENCE.     Remember  that  small  brain. 

ANT.  I  have  a  large  brain.  Mine  is  many  times  as 
large  as  that  of  a  bug  of  my  size. 

FLORENCE.  Say,  Ant,  I'm  just  fooling.   Let's  be  friends. 

ANT.  All  right,  but  don't  start  something  the  next  time 
you  are  around. 

Odor.    Sense  of  Smell.    Ammunition.    Daddy  Longlegs. 

ALBERT.  "Odor"  seems  to  be  a  big  word  with  ants. 
You  must  give  off  many  odors  and  must  be  able  to  detect 
many. 

ANT.  We  learn  many  things  from  odor — more  than  you 
can  understand.  Touch  and  odor  together  at  the  same 


62    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

time— contact-odor — gives  us  a  picture  of  a  thing  like  you 
get  through  your  eyes,  but  you  can't  understand  how  it 
does  so. 

ALBERT.     Name  some  of  your  odors. 

ANT.  The  nest  odor  lets  us  know  our  ants  from  others 
even  when  out  of  doors  and  helps  us  find  our  nest  when 
near  it.  Then  there  is  the  trail  odor.  Each  ant  also  has 
its  own  odor.  Why,  the  odor  of  an  ant  may  change  every 
few  months.  One  ant  can't  deceive  the  rest  about  her  age. 

ALBERT. — Your  world  must  be  different  from  ours. 

ANT.  Then  there  is  the  queen  odor  and  the  odor  of 
eggs  and  babies  at  different  stages.  An  ant  can  give  off 
different  kinds  of  odors  when  it  wants  to. 

ALBERT.  They  say  formic  acid  used  to  be  made  from 
ants. 

ANT.  Yes;  most  ants  give  off  formic  acid  odor  and 
various  other  kinds  when  they  want  to  do  so.  These  odors 
leave  the  ant  as  liquids,  but  evaporate  or  even  explode  on 
coming  into  air,  and  change  to  gases. 

ALBERT.     I  understand. 

ANT.  Of  course  we  use  some  of  these  liquids  and  gases 
as  ammunition  in  attacking  enemies. 

ALBERT.  I  suppose  that  ants  have  been  gassing  the 
enemy  for  a  good  while — long  before  man  learned  how  to 
do  so? 

ANT.  Yes,  for  a  few  million  years,  as  your  professor 
would  say.  An  ant  might  spray  it  in  the  air,  shoot  it, 
smear  it,  or  run  a  spine  into  the  enemy,  and  then  force  the 
acid  out  at  the  end  of  the  spine. 

ALBERT.  You  couldn't  smell  with  your  feelers  because 
they  are  dry.  If  my  nose  were  not  moist  inside,  I  couldn't 
smell. 

ANT.  We  have  little  changed  hairs  on  our  feelers  that 
are  kept  moist.  The  outer  edge  of  a  feeler  is  covered  with 


ODOR,   SENSE  OF  SMELL.   DADDY  LONGLEGS    63 

a  film.  Why,  each  joint  in  a  feeler  may  detect  a  different 
odor  from  any  of  the  rest.  But  contact-odor  makes  the 
best  nose  organ.  You  see,  an  ant's  feeler  contains  a  set  of 
specialized  "noses." 

FLORENCE.    No,  I  don't  "see." 

ANT.  You  can  sing  the  music  scale.  Out  of  the  different 
combinations  of  a  few  tones  you  get  about  all  the  music 
and  about  all  the  sounds  in  the  world. 

FLORENCE.     Go  on. 

ANT.  Well,  odors  are  arranged  in  scales  too  and  can  be 
combined  in  thousands  of  ways  to  tell  thousands  of  things 
if  you  have  good  enough  a  nose. 

FLORENCE.  I  suppose  you  say  "I  smell"  instead  of 
"I  see." 

Ant.  You  can't  see  with  your  ears  nor  hear  with  your 
eyes  and  the  sense  of  smell  is  about  dead  in  your  nose.  All 
you  need  is  to  go  blind  and  deaf  and  get  a  better  nose  to 
find  out  much  that  you  are  now  learning  through  your 
eyes  and  ears. 

ALBERT.  I  don't  quite  see  how  your  gases  can  be  so 
strong. 

ANT.  Uncork  a  bottle  of  ammonia  under  your  nose  or 
go  to  war,  and  you'll  understand. 

KENNETH.  How  long  might  an  ant  be  kept  from 
home  and  still  be  known  by  her  sisters? 

CECIL.     One  book  says  a  year  or  more. 

KENNETH.  There  must  be  a  great  deal  of  acid  fumes 
in  a  nest  unless  the  ants  kill  them  with  another  kind. 

CECIL.  The  moisture  and  minerals  in  the  walls  would 
take  it  up.  That's  what  hardens  the  walls. 

ALBERT.  Of  course  the  ants  can  smell  the  different 
kinds  of  food  much  better  than  we  can. 

KENNETH.     A  week  ago  I  laid  a  little  board  on  some 


64    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

inch-high  posts.  The  ants  paid  no  attention.  Today  I  laid 
some  crushed  almond  on  the  board.  An  ant  climbed  up 
and  took  a  piece  home.  Then  several  others  and  three 
visiting  ants  (acrobats)  did  the  same. 


A  Harvester  scenting  the  trail  or  something  else. 

ALBERT.     They  must  have  as  good  a  scent  as  my  dog 
has. 

KENNETH.     I  then  put  some  of  the  almond  in  the  top 


THE  ACROBAT  65 

of  a  weed.  An  ant  climbed  up  and  got  it.  Next,  the  ants 
searched  in  the  tops  of  other  weeds. 

CECIL.     It  looks  like  ants  can  learn. 

DOROTHY.  When  one  of  your  workers  got  crushed  on 
the  trail  today,  all  passing  ants  stopped  six  to  twelve 
inches  before  reaching  the  injured  one,  circled  half  around 
it,  held  on  to  their  seeds,  and  went  on  their  way  home. 

ANT.     The  gas  given  off  was  a  danger  signal. 

KENNETH.  One  of  our  ants  tried  to  carry  a  wounded 
visitor  (Acrobat)  away  from  the  door,  but  soon  dropped  it 
and  had  a  fit.  Acid,  I  suppose. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  an  ant  rear  up  like  a  rabbit  as  if  listen- 
ing for  something  or  smelling  for  something. 

KENNETH.  I  gave  the  Carpenter  a  fly  a  foot  from 
home.  Owing  to  the  smell  of  the  fly  or  for  some  other 
reason,  she  lost  the  trail  and  had  to  climb  to  the  top  of  a 
weed  three  times  before  she  got  a  whiff  of  her  nest  odor. 
Then  she  took  the  fly  straight  home.  I  suppose  it  was  for 
the  babies. 

DOROTHY.  The  ant  could  smell  the  nest  odor  but  not 
the  trail  odor,  eh?  But  maybe  there  was  no  trail  odor,  as 
there  was  no  trail. 

KENNETH.     Possibly. 

DOROTHY.  The  daddy-longlegs  seems  to  be  paralyzed 
as  soon  as  you  get  hold  of  it. 

ANT.  It  is.  Did  you  ever  notice  how  close  to  the 
ground  it  carries  its  body?  Did  you  ever  see  it  spring  onto 
another  animal?  Daddy  isn't  as  helpless  as  he  looks  on 
his  stilts  or  he  wouldn't  now  be  on  earth.  He  would  be 
easy  enough  to  kill  if  we  could  only  reach  him  and  if  he 
didn't  have  such  a  bad  odor  when  attacked. 

CECIL.  Besides  acids,  some  ants  have  oil  bags,  too.  The 
oil  is  used  to  make  the  sting  work  easy.  Or  it  might  be 


66    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

used  to  put  on  wounds  made  by  the  acid  from  an  ant's  own 
factory  or  from  those  of  other  insects. 

The  Acrobat. 

ALBERT.  What  kind  of  an  ant  is  this?  See  it  double 
its  abdomen  over  its  back.  Barnum  and  Bailey's  circus 
ought  to  have  it. 

ANT.  It  is  called  the  Acrobat  ant  ("Crematogaster 
lineolata."  Say  "subsp.  coarctata" — Emery).  Plenty  of 
them  around  here.  The  Fire  ant  lives  in  California,  too, 
and  some  of  the  kind  that  can  raise  mushrooms  to  eat. 

KENNETH.     Who  knows  something  about  the  Acrobats? 


WOEKEE  ACEOBAT  ANT. 
(Cremastogaster  lineolata.) 

Notice  the  shape  of  the  abdomen,  which  is  often   held  up   over  the 

thorax. 

CECIL.  They  are  rather  shiny  and  rather  common. 
Their  former  home  was  in  Asia  only.  They  generally  have 
small  colonies,  are  rather  sluggish,  and  are  seldom  seen  in 
the  house  of  man. 


THE  ACROBAT  67 

FLORENCE.  They  are  a  fright  when  performing. 
Watch  this  one  double  back  its  abdomen  and  shoot  this 
straw  when  I  hold  its  head  down.  Doesn't  that  beat  you? 

CECIL.  The  jaws  of  the  Acrobat  are  small.  It  depends 
much  on  plant  lice  and  plants  for  honey  dew.  These  ants 
often  guard  their  cows  and  sometimes  build  stables  for 
them.  They  may  have  several  branch  nests  and  may  even 
live  in  the  home  with  other  ants. 

KENNETH.  I  can't  find  out  what  the  Acrobats  around 
here  do  eat. 

ANT.     Keep  a  lookout  and  you  will  see. 

This  is  the  ant  that  never  waits  for  an  invitation  to  dine 
with  ours.  It  herds  plant  lice  for  cows  and  builds  stables 
for  them.  It  can  double  its  abdomen  over  its  back  and 
shoot  an  enemy  in  front. 

ALBERT.     The  Acrobat  doubles  its  abdomen  up  over  its 


This  Acrobat  would  punish  an  enemy 
as  it  is  trying  to  punish  the  straw. 

back  and  fires  at  an  enemy  in  front,  while  the  Carpenter 
doubles  its  abdomen  under  its  body  and  fires  at  an  enemy 
in  front. 

CECIL.  Yes.  Take  an  Acrobat  by  the  head  or  hold  its 
head  down  with  a  knife  blade,  and  you  can  generally  see 
a  drop  of  acid. 

KENNETH.  I  laid  the  body  of  a  bug  in  the  doorway 
of  our  ants,  but  the  Acrobats  beat  ours  to  it.  They  would 
point  their  abdomens  toward  any  ant  that  touched  them — 


68    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

up,  down,  sidewise,  just  like  a  cannon. 

FLORENCE.  Yes,  but  tell  it  all.  Our  ants  wouldn't 
give  up,  and  finally  got  hold  of  the  bug  and  dragged  it, 
Acrobats  and  all,  into  the  house. 

DOROTHY.  I  don't  like  the  Acrobats,  because  they  are 
always  snooping  around  in  other  ants'  business. 

CECIL.  But  they  know  a  lot.  The  Acrobats  were  com- 
ing home  on  a  long  trail,  one  at  a  time.  I  placed  a  crushed 
one  on  the  runway,  a  foot  from  the  door. 

DOROTHY.     Well? 

CECIL.  The  first  traveler  to  come  up  to  the  crushed 
ant  examined  it  carefully,  turned  and  went  back  up  the 
trail  six  inches,  and  there  stopped  stone  still,  never  moving 
a  foot  for  twenty-five  minutes. 

DOROTHY.     Go  on. 

CECIL.  The  other  Acrobats  came  down  the  trail,  one 
about  every  minute,  and  each  was  halted  by  the  guard. 
After  crossing  feelers  for  a  few  seconds,  each  traveler 
turned  and  went  back.  Twenty-five  ants  did  this  before  I 
had  to  leave  for  school.  Now  isn't  that  wonderful? 

DOROTHY.     Yes. 

CECIL.  Of  course  the  guard  told  the  other  ants  that  a 
murder  had  been  committed,  and  that  they  had  better  turn 
and  go  back.  Those  going  back  met  others  coming  in,  but 
did  not  tell  them  the  news.  I  have  seen  Acrobats  do  this 
same  thing  several  times. 

FLORENCE.     Tell  us  more  about  the  habits  of  this  ant, 

CECIL.  It's  no  use.  Just  remember  all  that  was  said 
about  the  Carpenter  and  all  that  will  be  said  about  the 
Carpenter.  Their  habits  are  very  much  the  same. 

KENNETH.  I  dropped  a  wounded  Acrobat  down  her 
own  stairway.  Then  I  dropped  one  of  our  ants  in  and  held 
my  finger  on  the  door  for  a  minute.  Our  ant  rushed  out, 


ANTS  DON'T  ALWAYS  AGREE  69 

dragging  several  Acrobats,  but  all  let  loose  except  the 
wounded  one.  This  shows  that  the  Acrobats  didn't  want  to 
kill  ours. 

ALBERT.  And  when  I  tried  to  get  our  ants  to  help 
loosen  the  jaws  of  that  wounded  Acrobat,  they  wouldn't, 
and  I  had  to  pry  them  apart, 

DOROTHY.  I  never  see  the  Acrobats  carry  any  of  their 
sisters,  dead  or  alive. 

KENNETH.  I  have.  Twice  I've  seen  an  Acrobat  carry 
the  dead  body  of  a  sister  across  the  sidewalk,  and  I  saw 
that  ant  carry  a  crippled  nest  mate  away  from  the  door  of 
our  ants. 

ALBERT.  The  Acrobats  often  enter  the  home  of  our 
ants,  but  ours  never  return  their  visits.  I  dropped  an- 
other one  of  ours  in  at  the  Acrobat  door,  but  she  was 
chased  out  by  a  dozen  ants. 

DOROTHY.  I  spread  some  bits  of  paper  with  honey 
and  left  them  at  the  door  of  the  Acrobats.  Ten  pieces  were 
carried  in  and  the  ants  ate  the  honey  on  the  other  pieces. 

FLORENCE.  I  gave  them  some  honey  on  paper,  too. 
Twelve  ate  at  the  first  table,  twenty  at  the  second,  forty 
at  the  third,  and  seventy-five  at  the  fourth.  Time,  five  to 
eight  in  the  evening. 

ALBERT.  I've  seen  two  hundred  of  these  Acrobats  out 
at  a  time. 

FLORENCE.  The  Acrobats  must  be  hungry.  I  gave 
them  some  squash  seed  and  they  ate  it. 

Ants  Don't  Always  Agree. 

KENNETH.  A  large  stinging  insect  fell  at  your  door. 
Some  of  the  ants  fought  it,  others  tried  to  drag  it  away, 
and  some  tried  to  take  it  indoors. 

ANT.     Neither  ants  nor  men  can  always  agree. 

KENNETH.     Two   of  your   ants   were   slowly   dragging 


70    ANTS  AND  CHILDKEN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

the  body  of  a  large  insect  home,  while  a  third  stood  on  it 
and  ate.  Finally,  the  workers  stopped,  pulled  the  one 
loose  that  was  eating,  and  carried  her  off  the  premises. 
But  she  took  a  mouthful  along. 

ANT.  Maybe  the  hot  sun  had  dried  her  jaws  fast,  and 
she  couldn't  let  loose.  These  three  ants  were  not  all  think- 
ing the  same  thing,  were  they? 

KENNETH.  An  ant  was  carrying  a  seed  away  from 
home.  Another  ant  bit  her  feet  and  legs,  took  the  seed 
away  from  her,  and  carried  it  back  to  the  nest. 

ALBERT.     Once   two    ants    couldn't   agree   as   to   which 


way  a  seed  should  be   carried.     One  picked   the   other   up 
and  carried  her  into  the  house.    Looked  like  a  joke  to  me. 

CECIL.  Sixteen  ants  tried  for  half  an  hour  to  decide 
what  should  be  done  with  one  that  had  got  caught  in  the 
coil  of  a  filaree  seed.  One  party  decided  to  drag  the  com- 
bination into  the  house.  His  honor,  the  judge,  ruled  in 
favor  of  the  other  party  and  they  took  it  to  the  rubbish 
heap. 


AGE  OF  EGGS,  LARVAE,  ETC.  71 

Ants  Have  Been  on  Earth  a  Long  Time. 

ALBERT.  You  SHY  that  ants  have  been  on  earth  so 
much  longer  than  man.  How  do  you  know? 

ANT.  Because  fossil  ants  are  found  in  old  amber  and  in 
old  rocks.  Man  hasn't  been  on  earth  long  enough  to  have 
a  fossil — a  dead  one. 

CECIL.  Yes.  Fossil  ants  are  found  in  the  amber  of 
Sicily  and  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  sea.  Amber  is  fos- 
silized pinewax,  or  fossil  resin.  The  wax  formed  on  the 
pine  trees  that  once  grew  in  these  regions.  The  trees 
decayed,  and  the  wax  became  buried,  and  then  fossilized. 
Fossil  ants  are  found  in  stone,  too. 

Age  of  Eggs,  Larvae,  Pupae,  Workers  and  Queens. 

KENNETH.  How  long  from  the  time  an  egg  is  laid 
until  it  becomes  a  full-grown  ant? 

ANT.  That  depends  on  the  time  of  year,  on  tempera- 
ture, and  on  other  things,  but  I  can  give  you  the  time  for 
the  Argentine  ants  living  in  California.  With  that  ant,  it 
takes  about  twenty-eight  days  for  the  egg  to  hatch  into 
what  we  call  the  baby,  grub,  maggot,  worm  or  larva.  Then, 
in  about  twenty-one  days  more,  the  larva  becomes  a  pupa. 
In  about  fifteen  days  more,  the  pupa  has  changed  to  a 
young  white  ant.  In  a  few  days  more  it  has  hardened  up, 
changed  its  color,  and  is  ready  for  work. 

KENNETH.  About  seventy-one  days  from  the  time  egg- 
hatching  begins  until  the  young  white  ant  appears — over 
two  months. 

ANT.  That  young  ant  is  pretty  helpless  for  a  few  days 
and  has  to  be  fed  and  attended — has  to  be  taught  to  walk, 
you  know,  the  same  as  man's  child. 

KENNETH.  Does  this  little  troublesome  Argentine  spin 
a  cocoon? 

ANT.  I  think  so,  but  our  kind  of  ant  doesn't.  Our 
pupae  are  said  to  be  naked. 


72    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

KENNETH.  Do  the  nurses  ever  help  the  young  ant  out 
of  the  cocoon? 

ANT.  Yes,  and  help  unfold  its  legs  and  feelers,  and 
wings,  too,  if  it  have  any.  The  young  ant  helps,  also. 

KENNETH.  I  guess  I  understand.  The  baby  has  no 
legs  or  feelers,  and  spins  a  cocoon  when  it  is  ready  to 
become  a  pupa.  In  the  cocoon  the  pupa  eats  nothing,  but 
grows  legs  and  feelers,  and  then  out  comes  an  ant. 

DOROTHY.  You  told  us  about  the  age  of  the  Argentine 
ant.  How  about  other  ants? 

ANT.  A  worker  has  been  known  to  live  five  years,  and 
one  queen  was  known  to  live  fifteen. 

DOROTHY.     Then  some  queens  may  be  older  than  I  am. 

ANT.  Yes,  but  you  will  find  that  they  are  not  very 
good  looking.  The  hard  work  of  mining  her  first  nest  all 
alone  sometimes  wears  off  her  shiny  coat,  scratches  her 
body,  and  makes  the  queen  a  sorry  sight  the  rest  of  her 
life — even  toothless,  and  with  jaws  badly  worn. 

DOROTHY.  How  does  she  put  in  the  time?  What 
does  she  work  at? 

ANT.  As  a  rule  she  works  none.  She  just  lays  eggs. 
Servants  guard  her,  feed  her,  and  take  care  of  her. 

Kind  of  Ants.    The  Argentine  Ant. 

CECIL.  Tell  us  more  about  that  troublesome  Argentine 
ant. 

ANT.  That  kind  of  ant  covers  about  4,000  acres  near 
San  Francisco,  and  about  1,000  acres  around  Los  Angeles. 
Other  ants  don't  like  that  one  any  better  than  man  does. 
It  captures  all  other  kinds  or  drives  them  away.  So,  the 
time  may  come  when  the  Argentine  will  be  the  only  kind 
in  California. 


THE  ARGENTINE  ANT  73 

CECIL.  The  worst  household  pest  of  all  ants.  That's 
a  bad  record. 

ANT.  As  the  queens  do  not  fly,  it  is  not  spreading  very 
fast.  It  is  only  one-eighth  of  an  inch  long — only  half  as 
long  as  we  are.  It  would  take  eight  of  them  to  make  an 
ant  as  large  as  I  am.  They  are  little  but  mighty  when  it 
comes  to  fighting. 

CECIL.  How  can  a  small  ant  like  that  whip  others  that 
have  ammunition? 

ANT.  There  are  more  of  the  Argentines,  and  they  just 
keep  on  fighting  until  the  ammunition  of  the  enemy  is  all 
gone.  Of  course,  many  of  the  Argentines  are  killed. 

CECIL.     What  harm  does  this  ant  do? 

ANT.  It  is  said  that,  in  some  places  in  this  state,  ants 
have  reduced  the  value  of  land  ten  to  fifteen  dollars  an 
acre. 

KENNETH.  You  are  not  well  posted.  Within  the  past 
ten  years  the  Argentine  ant  has  spread  to  many  other 
places  than  those  you  named.  There  are  plenty  of  them  in 
Balboa  Park,  San  Diego,  right  now. 

CECIL.     What  do  you  know  about  them? 

KENNETH.  I  know  they  stole  honey  from  bees  kept  in 
the  Park.  A  young  turtle  lay  on  his  stone  island  in  his 
small  tank  in  the  museum.  The  keeper  put  a  piece  of 
boiled  egg  on  the  turtle's  back. 

CECIL.     Well,  then  what? 

KENNETH.  The  Argentine  ants  used  their  floating 
sisters  as  a  bridge,  crossed  the  water  six  inches  to  the 
island,  and  stole  the  egg.  The  bridge  was  destroyed,  but 
was  re-formed. 

CECIL.  I  wish  every  Argentine  ant  in  the  state  was 
destroyed,  for,  as  you  say,  they  will  drive  out  or  kill  all 
other  ants. 


74    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ALBERT.  That  ant  searches  through  the  house  for 
sweet  stuff,  eats  young  chicks,  gives  tender  care  to  aphids 
and  scale  insects,  ravages  orange  trees,  corn,  sugar  cane, 
cotton,  and  so  far  man  is  almost  helpless  against  this  pest, 
the  newspapers  say. 

KENNETH.  Speaking  of  bridges,  I  placed  three  oat 
straws  end  to  end  and  made  a  bridge  six  feet  long.  It 
reached  out  six  feet  from  a  nest  of  little  red  ants  over 
some  tangled  weeds  and  grass.  I  wish  you  could  have  seen 
the  ants  skipping  along  my  bridge  of  smooth  shiny  straws 
from  end  to  end. 

FLORENCE.   Are  there  more  ants  than  any  other  insect? 

CECIL.  There  are  more  kinds  of  butterflies  and  more 
kinds  of  beetles  in  the  world  than  kinds  of  ants,  but  there 
are  more  individual  ants  than  any  other  insect. 

DOROTHY.  You  say  5,000  kinds  of  ants  have  been 
named.  Of  these,  how  many  live  in  California? 

ANT.  About  forty-six.  The  Carpenter  is  the  biggest 
ant  in  the  state,  and  there  are  five  kinds  in  California. 

Population,  Residence,  How  Long  Ants  Use  the  Same  House. 

CECIL.    Is  the  population  of  the  ant  world  increasing? 

ANT.  Some  kinds  of  ants  are  increasing,  others  decreas- 
ing. You  know  of  ants  that  thrive  in  the  presence  of  man 
—move  when  he  does  and  return  when  he  does — follow 
him  like  the  dog  and  dandelion.  Some  of  the  best  kinds 
are  already  gone  and  others  are  going  on  account  of  man's 
ax  and  plow. 

DOROTHY.     Where  all  do  ants  live? 

ALBERT.  Let  me  read  what  the  book  says:  "Ants  live 
from  the  seashore  to  the  timberline  on  the  mountains,  and 
from  the  dryest  desert  to  the  dampest  forest.  They  build 


HOW  LONG  ANTS  USE  SAME  HOUSE  75 

in  the  sand  and  live  in  the  quiet  desert,  or  under  a  rail- 
road track  in  the  constant  thunder  and  jar  of  great  passing 
trains." 

DOROTHY.  Some  one  of  you  said  there  are  more  ants 
in  many  a  county  than  people  in  this  whole  country. 

CECIL.  Why,  I  think  there  are  as  many  ants  in  a 
hundred  little  towns,  each  of  a  thousand  families  of  people, 
as  there  are  people  in  the  whole  world. 

DOROTHY.  You  forget  there  are  1,700,000,000  people 
in  the  world. 

CECIL.  I  think  there  are  13,000  ants  in  this  town  for 
every  family  of  people  living  in  it,  and  there  are  only  a 
few  ants  here.  Suppose  we  have  one  thousand  families  of 
people  here.  Now  multiply  13,000  by  1,000.  A  hundred 
such  towns  would  give  1,300,000,000. 

DOROTHY.    I  can  hardly  believe  this. 

CECIL.  Why,  one  book  speaks  of  a  single  colony  having 
500,000  ants  in  it.  Two  hundred  such  colonies  would  equal 
the  population  of  the  United  States.  Of  course,  the  ant 
colonies  around  here  are  small. 

DOROTHY.  How  many  Carpenters  in  a  completed 
colony? 

CECIL.    About  2,000,  the  books  say. 

KENNETH.    How  long  may  the  same  colony  use  a  nest? 

CECIL.  I  guess  there  is  no  particular  time,  but  ants 
have  been  known  to  use  the  same  nest  forty  years. 

ALBERT.  How  many  kinds  of  Harvester  ants  in  Cali- 
fornia, and  what's  the  population  of  a  colony? 

ANT.  There  are  six  kinds  in  this  state,  and  the  number 
in  a  colony  of  our  kind  around  here  ranges  from  4,000 
down.  The  Harvesters  are  the  most  common  ants  of  the 
plains  and  foothills.  Some  of  the  nests  well  up  in  the 
Sierras  may  be  seen  for  miles.  These  ants  are  very  easily 


76    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OP  THE  GARDEN 

destroyed,  as  they  live  in  the  ground  and  the  nests  are  in 
plain  sight.  You  could  destroy  our  colony  in  a  minute. 

FLORENCE.  There  are  about  a  dozen  colonies  of  our 
kind  of  ants  within  three  blocks  of  us.  Not  very  many, 
as  ants  go.  One  of  these  enrolls  4,000  ants  and  has  branch 
colonies  that  pass  back  and  forth. 

CECIL.  A  farmer  can  scarcely  cross  a  field  in  many 
parts  of  the  country  without  putting  his  foot  down  on  a 
colony  of  meadow  ants  at  every  step.  These  ants  own  a 
share  in  the  field  and  he  owns  a  share.  But  who  ever 
heard  of  an  ant  having  any  rights?  I  think  both  ants  and 
men  have  rights  until  they  forfeit  them. 


HARVESTING,  TRAILS,  GETTING  LOST          77 


CHAPTER  V. 

July  30  to  August  10. 

Harvesting,  Trails,  Getting  Lost,  Use  of  Six  Legiu 

FLORENCE.  About  700  of  your  workers  started  out 
for  the  Bermuda-grass  seed  thirty  feet  away.  Did  they 
follow  a  leader? 

ANT.  I  suppose  they  followed  a  few. scouts  that  had 
discovered  the  field,  but  no  one  particular  scout. 

FLORENCE.  You  better  drill  your  ants,  for  they  didn't 
march  in  any  order. 

ANT.  But  look  at  the  sticks,  weeds  and  grass  we  had 
to  climb  through. 

FLORENCE.  Why  don't  you  build  roads  through  the 
dry  tangled  grass? 

ANT.    We  do  whenever  we  think  it  worth  while. 

FLORENCE.     Were  all  your  ants  in  that  procession? 

ANT.  No.  Some  were  left  to  attend  the  babies,  eggs 
and  queens;  others  carried  chaff  from  the  nest  or  graded 
the  yard,  while  some  of  the  miners  carried  dirt  from  below. 
Of  course,  a  few  might  have  been  busy  as  guards,  under- 
takers and  so  on. 

FLORENCE.  Why  do  you  lug  cantaloupe  seed,  squash 
seed  and  apple  seed  home  every  day  when  you  know  that 
you  can't  crack  them? 

ANT.  Because  I  have  learned  that  you  will  crack  them 
for  me. 

FLORENCE.  So  you  learn,  but  don't  have  to  go  to 
school  to  do  it.  Today  I  placed  you  in  my  hand,  took  an 


78    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

apple  seed  away  from  yon,  hulled  it,  gave  it  back,  placed 
you  on  the  ground,  and  you  toted  it  on  home.  I  guess  I'll 
make  you  one  of  my  pets. 

ANT.    Pretty  good  friends,  after  all,  aren't  we? 

ALBERT.  When  I  threw  some  grass  seed  on  your  trail, 
you  were  disturbed  about  as  much  as  when  I  drew  my 
finger  across  it. 

ANT.  And  for  the  same  reason — you  had  disturbed  the 
trail  odor. 

ALBERT.  I  should  think  you  Avould  carry  home  many 
seeds  that  have  no  kernels  in  them — make  a  long  trip  for 
nothing. 

ANT.  We  generally  bite  a  seed  to  see  if  it  is  any  good 
before  we  carry  it  home.  But  sometimes  we  make  mis- 
takes. 

CECIL.  I  suppose  that  ants  can  tell  by  the  weight  and 
size,  too. 

ALBERT.  One  day  several  hundred  of  you  started  for 
the  seed  field,  but  why  did  you  all  change  your  minds  and 
go  back  home? 

ANT.  Why  ask?  You  know  that  cats,  dogs,  chickens, 
birds,  rabbits,  horses,  cows  and  children  pay  not  the  least 
attention  to  where  they  are  stepping. 

DOROTHY.    Why,  I  step  around  ants,  when  I  see  them. 

ALBERT.  I  can't  understand  why  you  lose  your  trail 
when  I  draw  my  finger  across  it.  Tell  me  again. 

ANT.  We  leave  an  odor  along  the  runway  to  mark  it. 
Doesn't  man  mark  his  trail  when  he  lays  it  out  through 
the  forest?  Your  finger  removes  the  odor  from  a  section 
and  we  are  bothered  for  a  time,  of  course.  But  the  rough 
sides  and  smooth  tracks  of  old  trails  also  help  to  guide  us. 

ALBERT.     One  of  your  ants  was  alone  out  in  the  bean 


HARVESTING,  TRAILS,  GETTING  LOST          79 

patch.  It  was  not  bothered  when  I  drew  my  finger  across 
in  front  of  it. 

ANT.  It  wasn't  following  a  trail.  It  might  have  been  a 
scout  or  it  might  have  been  ordered  from  home.  Some- 
times we  hunt  alone  for  game. 

ALBERT.  I  am  easily  lost  and  so  are  you.  I  often  get 
turned  around  in  San  Diego,  and  once  I  got  lost  in  the 
school  house.  When  I'm  lost  I  don't  know  which  way  home 
is,  and  I  don't  believe  you  do,  either. 

ANT.  When  lost  you  might  not  know  your  own  home 
if  you  would  see  it,  but  we  could  tell  our  home  by  the 
nest  odor,  and  I  think  my  sense  of  direction  is  better  than 
yours.  A  pigeon  can  beat  us  both. 

ALBERT.  When  lost  I  use  the  sun,  moon,  moss  on  a 
tree,  or  some  familiar  object  to  guide  me,  or  I  go  back 
and  start  over. 

ANT.  And  I  hunt  for  our  trail  odor,  nest  odor,  or  some 
familiar  object;  or  I  depend  on  the  direction  of  greatest 
light,  or  go  back  and  start  over.  The  direction  of  the 
wind  and  the  slope  of  the  ground  might  help  a  little.  I 
suppose  we  both  would  follow  a  crowd  if  it  was  the  right 
kind  of  a  one. 

KENNETH.  Last  evening  950  of  your  ants  formed  two 
trails.  Then  they  came  together  on  one  runway,  but  soon 
scattered  over  the  bean  patch,  where  there  is  nothing  for 
them  to  eat. 

ANT.  Maybe  they  were  hunting  dead  cucumber  bugs, 
ladybugs,  earwigs,  or  other  insects. 

ALBERT.  I  know  that  your  ants  spread  out  over  a 
few  feet  at  the  end  of  the  trail  in  search  of  seeds,  but 
these  spread  out  near  the  nest  and  were  lost  to  me.  I 
have  seen  one  ant  search  for  insects,  but  not  the  whole 
gang  until  this  time. 


80    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

KENNETH.  When  about  to  start  from  home  from  the 
harvest  field,  you  grasp  a  seed  tight  in  your  jaws  and  let 
the  sharp  end  run  back  between  your  front  legs  so  the 
long  tail  that  sticks  out  in  front  won't  wabble  as  you  walk. 

ANT.  Yes,  and  we  hold  onto  the  hard  ground  with  our 
claws  so  the  heavy  tail  in  front  won't  tip  us  up.  I  spread 
my  legs  apart  so  the  hard  seed  coats  won't  wear  the  mus- 
cles out. 

CECIL.  But  sometimes  the  ants  drag  their  loads  instead 
of  carrying  them. 

KENNETH.  I  see  your  forelegs  have  the  largest  mus- 
cles, the  hind  pair  next,  and  the  middle  pair  the  smallest. 

ALBERT.  I  haven't  but  two  legs.  What  do  you  want 
with  six? 

ANT.  Man  has  four  legs,  or  used  to  have.  His  arms  are 
really  legs.  You  might  as  well  ask  me  why  some  animals 
have  a  hundred.  I  never  heard  of  an  animal  with  too 
many  for  its  own  use.  I  can  pull  with  my  front  legs  and 
push  with  my  two  hind  pairs.  I  can  stand  upright  on  my 
two  hind  pairs  and  use  my  two  front  legs  as  you  do  your 
arms.  Like  you,  if  a  leg  is  injured,  I  limp. 

ALBERT.  Well,  I'm  not  a  four-legged  animal,  and  I'm 
glad  of  it  or  I  might  be  eating  out  of  a  trough. 

KENNETH.  I  made  a  nice  smooth  trail  for  you  through 
a  pile  of  stones  that  your  ants  were  climbing  over,  but  they 
wouldn't  use  it. 

ANT.  Would  you  send  an  army  up  a  canyon  road  if 
the  hills  and  caves  were  full  of  the  enemy? 

KENNETH.  Then  I  thought  I  would  teach  you  to  use 
my  road.  So  I  scattered  one  hundred  and  thirty  cracked 
muskmelon  seeds  in  it.  Within  half  an  hour  the  ants  had 
entered  my  canyon  and  carried  one  hundred  of  the  seeds 


HARVESTING,  TRAILS,  GETTING  LOST          81 

home.  Yet,  the  next  day  they  were  climbing  over  the 
stone  pile,  as  before. 

ANT.     That  was  all  right. 

KENNETH.  Who  told  the  ants  about  the  seeds  and 
where  they  were?  Why,  a  hundred  and  fifty  workers  and 
guards  poured  out  of  the  nest  in  ten  minutes,  after  the 
kernels.  They  moved  several  abreast  at  first. 

ALBERT.  If  I  should  drop  an  ant  on  a  trail  on  which 
ants  were  going  both  ways  and  carrying  nothing,  would  it 
know  which  way  home  is? 

KENNETH.  I  left  six  ants  on  a  pile  of  melon  seed  three 
feet  from  a  trail  on  which  ants  were  going  both  ways  and 
carrying  nothing.  After  fifteen  minutes'  search  the  six 
ants  got  the  odor  and  started  for  the  runway.  Two  of  the 
six  picked  up  one  seed  each  and  took  them  along,  so  I 
could  follow  these  after  they  had  joined  the  others  on  the 
trail. 

ALBERT.    What  did  you  find  out? 

KENNETH.  One  of  them  see-sawed  toward  and  away 
from  the  nest  several  times  when  it  struck  the  trail,  until 
it  was  nine  feet  further  from  home  than  when  it  first  hit 
the  runway.  It  then  turned  and  went  straight  to  the  nest. 

ALBERT.     What  about  the  other  one? 

KENNETH.  After  going  fifteen  feet  in  the  wrong  direc- 
tion on  the  trail  it  came  to  a  well-known  wooden  trough 
and  then  turned  and  went  home  with  its  load. 

CECIL.  Like  us,  the  two  ants  didn't  know  which  way 
home  was  until  they  came  to  some  familiar  object,  maybe. 

KENNETH.  The  ants  going  both  ways  may  have  con- 
fused them. 

ALBERT.  Could  one  ant  track  another  by  the  odor  left 
by  the  feet? 


82    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ANT.  Yes,  if  it  touch  the  trail  with  its  feelers — use 
contact-odor. 

DOROTHY.  I  counted  1,035  of  your  ants  on  the  trail 
yesterday.  We  never  counted  over  950  before. 

ANT.  You  may  count  more  than  that  some  day.  Ours 
is  now  a  small  colony. 

KENNETH.  Look !  This  drove  of  ants  are  going  home 
because  we  were  walking  around  in  front  of  them. 

CECIL.  The  trail  is  now  sixty  feet  long  and  crosses  the 
alley  for  the  first  time.  Food  must  be  getting  scarce. 

ALBERT.  Once,  when  nearly  all  our  ants  were  out  on 
the  trail,  they  had  to  cross  a  dangerous  footpath.  For 
some  reason  they  left  a  hundred  guards  at  the  crossing. 

FLORENCE.  Ha,  ha,  ha !  That  blurt  of  wind  nearly 
blew  you  off  the  yard.  I  don't  see  why  you  want  these 
loose  earth  pellets  lying  around  your  door.  You  can't  hold 
onto  them  when  the  wind  blows  like  you  can  to  the  hard 
ground  of  the  trail. 

ANT.    Ants  can't  work  much  when  the  wind  blows  hard. 

FLORENCE.  Strange  how  an  ant  will  generally  take  a 
straight  course  over  clods  and  stones,  instead  of  going 
around  them.  What  would  you  think  of  me  if  I  would  go 
over  a  house  instead  of  going  around  it? 

DOROTHY.  Well,  ours  are  now  going  eighty  feet  for 
seed.  A  passing  auto  has  just  run  over  three  ants  in  the 
alley. 

ANT.  Yes,  and  the  paper  boys,  other  children  and 
different  animals  often  step  on  us  and  don't  know  it.  Why, 
one  of  you  girls  sat  down  on  a  trail  of  workers  the  other 
evening. 

DOROTHY.  I  wouldn't  blame  you  if  you  would  move. 
I  suppose  you  will  before  long.  Haven't  you  food  enough 
stored  awav  to  last  over  next  winter? 


TEASING  THE   ANTS  83 

ANT.  No.  When  winter  comes  we  store  food,  close  the 
door  and  wait  for  spring.  An  ant  doesn't  have  to  eat  so 
much  in  winter  time  when  it  is  quiet  and  not  working. 

Teasing  the  Ants. 

FLORENCE.  I  handled  a  straw  today  and  threw  it  and 
another  one  down  by  the  door.  The  ants  bit  the  handled 
one  from  end  to  end  before  carrying  it  out,  but  took  the 
other  one  away  at  once. 

ANT.  Their  fine  sense  of  smell  made  them  suspicious  of 
the  first  one. 

DOROTHY.  Why  don't  you  run  home  when  I  whip  you 
with  a  straw? 

ANT.  Home  is  a  poor  place  to  take  an  enemy.  What 
we  want  at  such  times  is  the  enemy. 

DOROTHY.  When  I  tease  you  with  a  straw  and  throw 
you  down  by  the  door,  you  just  run  back  and  search 
for  me. 

ALBERT.  When  I  punch  you  with  a  straw,  why  do  you 
grip  it  with  your  jaws  and  let  me  carry  you  away? 

ANT.  We  bite  an  enemy  to  hurt  it  and  hold  on  for  the 
same  reason.  We  don't  think  of  ourselves. 

ALBERT.  But  you  will  hold  onto  a  seed  and  let  me 
carry  it  home  for  you. 

ANT.  I  would  hold  onto  a  seed  while  an  ant  carried  it 
home,  too,  if  it  was  my  seed. 

ALBERT.  Maybe  you  don't  know  when  you  are  being 
carried.  Once  a  railway  train  was  carrying  me  when  I 
thought  it  was  not  moving.  Another  train  alongside 
fooled  me. 

ANT.     I   don't  know.     You   didn't  know   whether  you 


84   ANTS  AND  CHILDEEN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

were    moving    or   not   when   on    the    train.      Ask    an    easy 
question. 

KENNETH.  I  touched  an  ant  with  a  straw  four  and  a 
half  inches  long — four  and  a  half,  mind  you — and  she 
grabbed  it.  I  then  laid  the  straw  across  the  top  of  the 
ridge  of  your  yard.  She  hung  on  and  dangled  from  one 
end  of  the  straw  until  her  hind  feet  touched  the  ground. 
Within  five  minutes  she  had  geed  the  straw  around  on  the 
pivot  and  moved  it  from  the  yard.  She  handled  it  just  as 
I  would  have  handled  a  log. 

Helping,  Rescuing. 

KENNETH.  I'm  glad  to  see  your  ants  help  each  other. 
One  of  your  small  nest  mates  couldn't  drag  a  bug.  Along 
came  a  large  ant,  picked  up  the  load,  and  easily  carried  it 
home.  The  small  one  then  went  back  to  the  harvest  field. 

ANT.     You  will  not  see  such  a  thing  happen  very  often. 

KENNETH.  I  threw  dust  on  an  ant  six  times  and 
dropped  it  at  its  door  as  often,  but  every  time  it  would 
run  back  and  search  for  me. 

ANT.  It  was  thinking  of  the  colony,  not  of  itself.  But 
don't  imagine  that  one  of  our  ants  can't  be  frightened. 

KENNETH.  Well,  it  wasn't  afraid  of  me,  for  it  climbed 
onto  my  fingers  and  bit  them  each  time. 

ALBERT.  Today  I  set  a  straw  on  end  in  your  door 
and  the  lower  part  rested  on  an  ant  and  she  couldn't  get 
loose.  Another  ant  lifted  the  straw  off  and  the  prisoner 
walked  away. 

ANT.  I  guess  the  ant  was  just  trying  to  get  the  straw 
out  of  the  door  or  thought  it  was  biting  an  enemy. 

FLORENCE.  I  think  the  boys  are  often  mistaken  when 
they  think  the  ants  are  so  wise. 


HELPING,  RESCUING  85 

KENNETH.  I  brought  one  of  your  crushed  ants  from 
the  alley  and  dropped  it  at  the  door  of  the  little  Garden 
ants  that  have  built  right  on  your  yard.  One  of  yours 
rushed  up  much  excited  and  carried  the  body  away.  Again 
I  dropped  the  body  by  the  door  and  it  fell  down  inside. 

ALBERT.     Then  what  happened? 

KENNETH.  Six  Garden  ants  came  home.  Four  ran 
away,  but  two  entered  the  door.  Then  five  of  our  ants 
came  up  and  stayed  half  an  hour.  They  jumped  and 
jerked  and  seemed  to  be  afraid  of  something. 

ALBERT.     Afraid  of  acid  ammunition,  I  guess. 

KENNETH.  Finally  one  of  ours  squeezed  in  at  the 
small  door  and  went  down  after  the  body  of  her  sister,  but 
came  out  without  it.  She  repeated  this  ten  times  and  then 
gave  up.  She  was  all  covered  with  dust  and  almost  over- 
come with  acid  or  something. 

FLORENCE.  I  saw  her.  Once  she  knocked  some  sticks 
across  the  door  and  had  to  remove  them  before  she  could 
enter  again. 

CECIL.  One  of  the  odors  of  the  Garden  ant  is  pleasant 
to  us,  but  it  or  another  one  may  be  poisonous  to  ants  and 
other  animals.  Flowers  have  pleasant  odors,  but  farm 
stock  won't  eat  the  bloom  of  some  kinds. 

ALBERT.     Is  that  the  end  of  the  ant  story? 

KENNETH.  No.  The  next  day  one  of  our  ants  was 
still  going  after  the  body  of  her  sister,  but  failing.  I 
don't  believe  she  could  get  it  up  the  small  stairway,  but 
maybe  the  Garden  ants  wouldn't  let  her  have  it. 

ALBERT.  So  our  ants  will  risk  their  lives  by  going 
into  the  house  of  a  strange  ant  to  recover  the  body  of  a 
dead  sister.  And  they  will  keep  up  the  search  for  at  least 
twenty-four  hours. 


86    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.  I  think  that  is  wonderful.  Ours  pay  no  atten- 
tion to  those  killed  on  the  trail. 

ANT.  You'll  not  often  have  a  chance  to  see  us  rescue  a 
sister. 

CECIL.  Well,  I  saw  one  of  ours  rescue  another  of  the 
same  kind,  but  from  another  colony.  I  dropped  both  of 
them  at  the  door  of  Longlegs  (a  long-legged  ant),  and 
where  several  big-headed  soldiers  were  on  guard.  Now, 
listen:  Our  ant  grabbed  the  other  and  carried  her  six 
inches  away  from  the  danger  point.  This  was  done  before 
the  soldiers  had  time  to  make  an  attack.  What  do  you 
think  of  that? 

FLORENCE.  Strange  that  our  ant  would  rescue  the 
other  one  from  the  bulldogs  when  she  would  not  have 
allowed  it  around  her  own  door.  These  soldiers  are  a 
fright.  They  do  remind  me  of  bulldogs. 

CECIL.  An  ant  was  carrying  home  a  woolly  seed  that 
caught  on  something  and  she  couldn't  loosen  it.  Another 
ant  came  along,  helped  unfasten  it,  and  then  went  on  to 
the  seed  field. 

FLORENCE.     Ants  think,  eh? 

KENNETH.  Speaking  of  Longlegs,  I  saw  one  of  them 
acting  in  a  suspicious  manner  today.  It  pretended  to  be 
working  for  our  ants.  It  dragged  the  body  of  a  dead 
Carpenter  up  to  the  door  of  our  ants  and  left  it  as  if  for 
food.  It  must  be  a  scout  or  belong  to  the  secret  service. 

CECIL.  Why,  I  saw  a  Carpenter  drag  the  dead  body  of 
one  of  her  own  sisters  up  to  the  door  of  our  ants  and  leave 
it;  for  food,  maybe. 

DOROTHY.  Our  good-natured  ants  must  be  very  popular. 

KENNETH.  I  pasted  an  ant  in  some  stiff  mud  last  night. 
This  morning  the  ants  had  dug  a  three-eighths  inch  hole 
around  her  and  were  trying  to  pull  her  out.  I  loosened 


BEES  AND  ANTS  COMPARED  87 

her  and  the  ants  took  her  to  the  rubbish  heap.  She  had 
lost  a  feeler.  No;  I  won't  do  such  a  thing  again. 

DOROTHY.     What  else  have  you  thought  to  do? 

KENNETH.  I  poked  a  dozen  Carpenters  into  a  tangle 
of  spider  web,  but  they  all  got  away  except  one.  One  of 
those  that  escaped  came  back  and  worked  her  way  to  the 
entrapped  ant,  told  her  something,  and  left.  It  did  this 
same  thing  twice  again. 

CECIL.  Then  you  set  the  prisoner  free  yourself.  She 
found  another  insect  that  had  been  snared,  loosened  it,  and 
let  it  fall  to  the  ground. 

Bees  and  Ants  Compared. 

KENNETH.  How  about  the  size  of  bumblebee  and  wasp 
colonies?  Yes,  and  bee  colonies? 

ANT.  There  are  only  a  few  in  a  nest.  These  insects 
live  from  a  few  months  to  twelve.  Of  course,  the  queen 
bee  may  live  a  few  years. 

FLORENCE.    Where  do  bees  get  the  wax  for  the  comb? 

ANT.  It  comes  out  of  the  bee's  body  much  like  perspi- 
ration exudes  from  your  skin.  Did  you  ever  eat  the  wax 
at  a  wound  of  a  cherry  tree?  You  see  a  tree  can  make 
wax,  too. 

FLORENCE.  Neither  I  nor  the  bee  could  live  on  honey 
alone.  What  does  a  bee  do  for  bread  and  meat? 

ANT.     It  eats  pollen. 

FLORENCE.     How  do  bees  stop  up  cracks  in  a  hive? 

ANT.     They  gather  gum  from  trees  for  that  purpose. 

FLORENCE.  You  seem  to  eat  most  anything,  while  a 
bee  can't  eat  anything  but  honey,  fruit  juice  and  flower 
dust. 

ANT.  And  now  you  see  one  reason  why  there  are  so 
manv  more  ants  than  bees. 


88    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  Yes,  but  you  are  not  smart  enough  to 
make  your  houses  and  baby  cribs  all  alike,  and  out  of  wax 
or  paper,  as  hornets,  wasps  and  bees  do. 

ANT.  You  mean  I  am  too  smart  to  do  this.  Why,  our 
house  is  easier  to  build,  takes  less  time,  may  last  many 
years,  and  we  can  leave  it  at  any  time  and  build  a  new 
one  in  a  few  days.  Then,  we  can  move  back  to  an  old 
home  if  we  want  to. 

KENNETH.  But  some  ants  build  paper  houses,  even 
mud  houses,  up  in  trees. 

FLORENCE.  Bees  have  but  one  queen.  Why  do  you 
want  to  bother  with  taking  care  of  so  many?  Is  it  be- 
cause several  queens  can  lay  more  eggs  than  one,  or  so  if 
one  dies  you  may  have  others  left?  Don't  your  queens 
fight  each  other? 

ANT.  Not  in  the  nest,  but  they  might  if  they  should 
meet  while  out  looking  for  a  place  to  start  a  new  colony. 

FLORENCE.  A  colony  of  bees  lives  in  the  top  of  one  of 
the  porch  columns  at  our  Hamilton  school.  One  lit  on  a 
girl's  hand  the  other  day. 

DOROTHY.  I'm  glad  no  one  has  been  able  to  figure  out 
a  way  to  get  their  honey. 

FLORENCE.  A  bee  can  fly  miles  while  you  are  dragging 
your  load  sixty  feet  through  dust  and  tangled  weeds,  and 
she  can  keep  herself  clean,  while  you  get  all  over  dirt. 

ANT.     Well,  go  on. 

FLORENCE.  The  bee's  food  is  in  a  beautiful  painted 
cup,  held  up  in  the  air  where  she  can  see  it  or  smell  it, 
while  you  have  to  hunt  for  yours  in  the  rubbish  and  dirt. 

ANT.  Wrong  as  usual.  Our  hard  struggle  and  the  lack 
of  it  in  bees  are  two  more  things  that  have  made  the  ant 
world  surpass  the  bee  world. 


MEN  AND  ANTS  COMPARED.     LONGLEGS        89 

FLORENCE.  Well,  I  wish  man  had  been  given  wings, 
anyhow. 

CECIL.  If  man  had  been  given  wings,  he  mightn't  know 
any  more  than  the  condor  and  might  be  as  scarce  as  the 
dodo. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  man  got  tired  of  waiting  for  wings 
to  grow,  and  so  now  is  making  his  own. 

CECIL.  Yes,  and  when  the  sky  begins  to  rain  bombs,  he 
may  see  his  mistake. 

ANT.  Here,  children,  you'll  have  to  get  off  our  yard  if 
you're  going  to  quarrel. 

Men  and  Ants  Compared. 

ALBERT.     Is  one  kind  of  ant  as  smart  as  another? 

ANT.  Are  all  kinds  of  men  equally  wise?  Let  me  see 
if  I  can  read:  "You  have  your  savage  hunters  living  in 
the  wilds  and  fighting  single-handed — so  have  ants.  You 
have  your  shepherds  with  their  animals  and  houses,  that 
live  on  the  products  of  their  flocks  and  combine  in  battle — 
so  have  ants." 

ALBERT.     Right.     Go  on. 

ANT.  "You  have  your  great  civilized  farming  people 
that  harvest  their  crops,  build  their  houses,  and  combine  in 
war — so  with  ants."  I  am  a  harvester.  I  hope  you  are, 
also. 

CECIL.  Yes,  civilized  man  is  a  harvester,  but  he  is 
more.  He  has  gone  ahead  of  you  because  he  can  make 
tools,  trade,  and  improve. 

Longlegs. 

FLORENCE.  We've  been  calling  the  ant  that  has  such 
long  legs  and  long  feet  "Longlegs."  Is  that  good  enough 
a  name? 


90    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.  That  ant  (Pheidole  longipes)  is  one  of  the  har- 
vesters and  belongs  to  the  same  tribe  as  our  ants.  They 
have  the  build  of  a  race  horse.  They  feed  on  larvae,  in- 
sects, seeds,  and  also  give  each  other  liquid  food  from 
the  mouth. 

FLORENCE.  See  how  its  jet  black  eyes  show  on  its 
light  color. 

CECIL.  It  is  variable  in  size  except  the  kings.  The 
big-headed  ones  are  soldiers,  guards,  and  nut  and  insect 
crackers. 


LOHGLEG3 


(Pheidole  longipes.) 

A  and  B — Big-headed  soldiers  of  Longipes. 
C — Under  view  of  one  kind  of  worker. 


FLORENCE.     I've  seen  the  soldiers. 

CECIL.  This  ant  has  been  on  earth  a  long  time,  and 
has  developed  casts  for  special  duties.  It  makes  small 
craters,  and  a  number  of  guests  live  with  it. 

KENNETH.  Yes,  and  it  may  use  tree-hoppers  and  cater- 
pillars for  cows.  I  wonder  why  it  falls  from  the  ceiling 
down  on  my  book  sometimes  when  I  am  reading  at  night? 
I  guess  the  light  attracts  it — or  is  it  after  flies?  It  has 
the  movements  of  a  thief.  Look  at  its  sharp  dagger  jaws. 

FLORENCE.  I  see  that  the  Longlegs  carry  some  of 
their  ants  around  the  same  as  ours  do. 


LONGLEGS  91 

ALBERT.  A  Carpenter  was  scared  into  the  den  of  the 
Longlegs  last  evening.  This  morning  her  head  and  torn 
body  lay  at  the  door.  Then  I  saw  two  of  the  soldiers 
tackle  another  Carpenter.  She  lost  a  leg  below  the  knee 
and  one  soldier  lost  a  jaw. 

CECIL.  I  saw  that.  I  carried  the  Carpenter  to  her 
home,  but  the  soldier's  jaws  still  held  on  to  another  leg. 
The  next  day  I  left  a  Carpenter  at  the  door  of  the  Long- 
legs.  The  one-jawed  soldier  rushed  out,  but  hiked  away 
in  a  hurry. 

ALBERT.  One  of  the  Longlegs  came  home  last  night 
carrying  another  that  had  lost  its  abdomen,  while  another 
one  lugged  a  big-headed  soldier.  A  third  carried  a  salt 
grass  seed,  a  fourth  a  bug,  and  a  fifth  the  leg  of  an  insect. 

FLORENCE.  Their  soldiers  have  large  brick-red  jaws. 
They  seem  to  have  good  teeth.  I  wonder  what's  in  the  big 
head? 

KENNETH.  Something,  for  two  of  them  stood  on  their 
heads  in  a  vial  of  alcohol. 

ALBERT.  I  ran  a  stick  into  the  nest  of  Longlegs,  and 
eight  big-headed  soldiers  came  out  and  searched  for  me. 
The  one  that  is  minus  a  jaw  is  still  doing  business. 

KENNETH.  When  I  opened  the  garage  door,  there  lay 
a  colony  of  Longlegs  on  the  floor — babies  and  all.  The 
soldiers  didn't  help  carry  the  babies  away. 

ALBERT.  The  following  were  found  drowned  in  a 
bucket  of  water  that  had  been  sitting  in  the  garage  for 
several  hot  davs : 


92    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

Long-legs — 

Workers     280 

Larvae    24 

Pupae    96 

Soldiers    16 — one  with  broken  jaw. 


Total    . 420 

Robbers   (Ecitons)     .  .       8 


Grand  total    428 

One  pupae  and  six  larvae  were  still  alive.  Probably  the 
water  had  a  little  oil  on  it. 

KENNETH.  Had  the  ants  carried  their  babies  to  get  a 
drink  or  were  they  trying  to  escape  from  the  robbers?  Did 
they  intend  to  float  on  the  water  with  their  babies  to  escape 
the  robbers?  Or  did  the  oil  on  the  water  capture  them? 
Who  told  you  some  of  the  ants  were  robbers? 

ALBERT.  Ant  said  they  were  robbers,  but  that  we 
would  have  to  find  out  about  them  ourselves. 

KENNETH.  The  other  day  I  found  a  number  of  Long- 
legs  trying  to  escape  across  a  cement  sidewalk  with  their 
young.  Their  baby  queens  were  so  large  the  workers  could 
not  drag  them,  in  the  excitement.  Wonder  if  they  had  not 
been  attacked  by  robber  ants  also? 

ALBERT.  We  must  keep  a  watchout  for  these  robbers 
and  learn  about  their  habits.  Maybe  we  can  find  out  what 
their  name  is  also. 


CARRYING  THINGS.     TRAILS  93 


CHAPTER  VI. 

August  10  to  August  20. 
Carrying  Things.     Trails.     Heavy  Loads. 

CECIL.  I  found  one  of  your  ants  on  top  of  one  of  the 
tiny  posts  we  drove  on  your  yard,  but  its  abdomen  had 
been  cut  off.  I  suppose  it  had  been  either  carried  or 
ordered  from  home. 

ANT.  The  ant  may  have  been  injured  in  any  one  of 
several  different  ways. 

DOROTHY.  One  ant  brought  another  out  of  the  house 
and  left  it  near  one  of  the  tiny  stakes  on  the  yard.  The 
outcast  climbed  the  stake  and  crossed  feelers  with  a  third 
ant  for  a  long  time.  The  third  one  then  carried  the  out- 
cast down  and  up  the  stake,  making  six  round  trips  with- 
out stopping.  I  suppose  the  third  one  was  an  "outcast" 
also. 

FLORENCE.  I  saw  an  ant  carry  two  out  of  the  house 
at  once.  One  of  them  climbed  a  tree  (weed),  and  the  other 
one  struck  out  across  the  country. 

ANT.  You  can't  get  it  into  your  head  that  of  a  thou- 
sand or  two  of  ants,  that  at  most  any  time  some  must  be 
old  and  worn  out,  sick,  crazy,  or  crippled,  and  have  to  be 
taken  out  of  the  house. 

FLORENCE.  Of  course,  too,  some  are  exposed  to  dis- 
eases that  are  catching — have  the  measles,  mumps,  small- 
pox or  fever,  and  should  be  removed.  I  suppose  we  are 
mistaken  when  we  think  you  are  giving  your  ants  a  joy 
ride. 

ALBERT.     I  saw  your  ants  carry  out  two  large  winged 


94    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

queens  and  some  babies,  hold-  them  a  few  minutes,  and 
then  tote  them  back. 

ANT.  We  take  them  out  to  air  them.  The  queens  gen- 
erally go  out  themselves  to  take  exercise  and  to  get  fresh 
air. 

DOROTHY.  It  took  four  ants  to  get  a  balky  one  out 
of  the  house.  Then  the  four  let  go  one  by  one  as  it  was 
dragged  away. 

ALBERT.  An  officer  carried  one  of  your  ants  out  of  the 
house  three  times,  and  each  time  the  ant  broke  away  and 
ran  back.  At  last  the  officer  gave  up  and  quit  trying. 


Carrying  Two  Ants. 

CECIL.  One  of  your  ants  had  two  things  in  mind  at 
the  same  time,  I  guess.  She  carried  an  aunt  out  ten  feet, 
laid  her  down,  and  then  went  on  to  the  harvest  field.  The 
one  carried  out  had  lost  a  foot  and  couldn't  walk. 

DOROTHY.  I  saw  one  of  ours  carry  a  wounded  sister 
six  feet  away.  Five  minutes  later  another  ant  got  on  the 
track,  and  followed  it  like  a  dog  would  a  rabbit  trail.  After 
examining  to  see  what  was  going  on,  it  left.  Might  a 
single  ant  leave  an  odor  along  a  trail? 

KENNETH.  The  fluid  sack  gets  so  full  sometimes,  that 
the  ant  has  to  discharge  it,  whether  it  wants  to  or  not. 
But  the  feet  leave  a  trail  odor  that  can  be  followed,  also. 

ANT.     Cecil  is  having  a  thought.     Let's  hear  from  him. 


CARRYING  THINGS.     TRAILS  95 

CECIL.  I  saw  one  of  our  ants  carrying  out  a  dead  one, 
and  the  dead  one  was  carrying  a  live  one.  It  was  like 
this:  For  some  reason,  the  dead  ant  clasped  a  live  one  by 
the  pedicel.  Then  a  third  ant  picked  up  the  dead  one,  and 
thus  carried  both  away  at  once. 

FLORENCE.  You'll  have  to  diagram  that  story  if  you 
want  it  understood. 

CECIL.  When  I  loosened  the  jaws  of  the  carrier,  the 
other  live  ant  went  back  home,  but  with  the  dead  one  still 
hanging  on.  Then  I  loosened  the  jaws  of  the  dead  one, 
and  the  live  one  again  went  home,  to  be  carried  away  by  a 
fourth  ant. 

FLORENCE.     The  other  one,  the  live  one,  the  dead 
one,  the  live  one,  the  other  one,  the  dead  one ! 

DOROTHY.  I  saw  you  dragging  a  lot  of  charcoal  home 
sixteen  feet  today.  Are  you  going  to  have  a  minstrel  show, 
or  do  you  have  to  carry  something  so  you  can  get  by  the 
guards  ? 

ANT.  Why  does  your  druggist  keep  charcoal  to  sell? 
Anyhow,  our  workers  found  it  near  the  fruit  parings,  and 
maybe  it  had  some  dried  juice  on  it. 

ALBERT.  Day  or  night  I  can  generally  find  from  one 
to  six  of  your  ants  on  the  tiny  posts  we  drove  on  your 
yard. 

ANT.  In  most  cases  these  ants  have  been  ordered  or 
carried  away  from  home. 

FLORENCE.  Why  don't  you  climb  the  two  weeds  on 
your  yard  like  you  do  the  little  posts? 

ANT.  Because  they  have  grown  bristly,  sticky  hairs  on 
the  stalks  to  keep  us  from  bothering  the  seeds  on  top.  But 
sometimes  I  climb  from  leaf  to  leaf  to  see  how  the  seeds 
are  coming  on. 

DOROTHY.     One  of  ours  carried  out  a  young  dead  white 


96    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OP  THE  GARDEN 

ant;  and  laid  it  down.  Another  ant  picked  it  up  and  car- 
ried it  far  away. 

KENNETH.  I  took  the  body  of  a  young  white  ant  down 
to  the  colony  like  ours  under  the  sidewalk.  An  ant  held 
its  mouth  to  it  for  about  ten  minutes,  picked  it  up,  carried 
it  a  short  distance,  and  handed  it  over  to  another  ant, 
mouth  to  mouth.  The  last  one  carried  it  away. 

FLORENCE.  You  don't  carry  out  all  your  cripples,  for 
I  saw  one  working  that  was  minus  a  leg  and  one  that  had 
a  caved-in  abdomen.  I  also  saw  one  at  work  that  had  an 
ant  head  fastened  onto  one  leg. 


How  au  Ant  Carries  a  Sister. 

ANT.  We  might  not  chase  a  cripple  away  from  home 
if  it  were  not  sick. 

KENNETH.  I  saw  an  ant  carry  a  wing  fifty  feet  to  her 
home  and  hand  it  over  to  an  inspector  that  laid  it  down 
by  the  door.  A  third  ant  picked  it  up  and  carried  it  six 
inches  away. 

DOROTHY.  Let's  ask  Cecil  why  one  ant  carries  an- 
other. 

CECIL.  I  think  one  ant  may  carry  another  for  different 
reasons,  as  follows:  Taking  sister  a  joy  ride,  bringing 
home  the  lost,  bringing  home  the  lazy,  carrying  home  the 
sick,  carrying  one  that  has  refused  to  move,  carrying  out 


CARRYING  THINGS.     TRAILS  97 

the  sick  or  worn-out  or  one  that  has  been  exposed  to  some 
catching  disease. 

DOROTHY.  I  thought  an  ant  always  carried  the  sick 
away  from  home  and  never  to  the  home. 

CECIL.  If  an  ant  had  a  sunstroke  or  a  chill  on  the 
trail,  I  think  another  ant  might  carry  it  home.  The  books 
say  that  ants  may  carry  home  the  lazy,  but  I  think  the 
"lazy"  include  those  that  have  had  a  sunstroke  or  chill  or 
something,  and  may  get  well. 

DOROTHY.     Just  how  does  one  ant  carry  another? 

CECIL.  By  a  leg,  or  the  back,  or  jaw,  but  seldom  by 
a  feeler.  I  think  an  ant  could  easily  lift  and  carry  a  dozen 
of  its  kind,  but  I  can't  say  as  much  for  myself. 

FLORENCE.  Just  see  what  a  load  man  can  carry  and 
how  far.  I  haven't  seen  you  carry  your  small  load  over 
eighty  feet. 

ANT.  Eighty  feet  is  3,840  times  my  length.  If  a  man 
is  five  and  a  half  feet  tall,  he  should  be  able  to  carry  or 
drag  his  loads  four  miles,  to  equal  what  I  do. 

FLORENCE.  But  look  at  the  small  weight  of  your 
loads. 

CECIL.  I've  been  figuring  on  this.  I  laid  the  kernel  of 
a  hubbard  squash  seed  on  the  ridge  of  our  ants'  yard.  From 
two  to  six  ants  moved  it  a  foot,  and  then  one  took  it  in  its 
jaws,  stood  on  the  edge  of  the  vertical  wall  by  the  door, 
and  let  it  dangle  against  the  side. 

ANT.  See?  That  seed  would  weigh  thirty  times  as 
much  as  the  ant  (maybe  twice  that),  and  thirty  times  the 
weight  of  a  man  would  be  about  two  and  a  fourth  tons. 
Could  a  man  lift  that  much  with  his  teeth? 

DOROTHY.     I  fear  it  would  pull  his  head  off. 

CECIL.  I  gave  the  ants  several  such  kernels,  and  they 
dragged  them  home.  One  was  laid  twenty-five  feet  from 


98    ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

the  nest.  It  took  two  days  and  four  hours  for  the  ants  to 
get  it  home.  They  moved  it  the  first  foot  in  an  hour. 

DOROTHY.     Did  they  work  all  day! 

CECIL.  From  one  to  six  ants  worked  morning's,  even- 
ings and  nights.  The  trail  was  not  smooth.  In  crossing  a 
pile  of  stone  they  lost  the  kernel,  and  I  helped  them  dig  it 
out. 

ANT.  I'd  like  to  see  one  man,  or  even  six  men,  drag 
4,500  pounds  over  rough  ground  one  and  a  quarter  miles 
in  a  little  over  two  days. 

ALBERT.  Our  ants  moved  a  whole  English  walnut 
kernel  four  inches — the  heaviest  load  I  ever  saw  them 
move. 

CECIL.  The  tails  of  five  filaree  seeds  got  tangled,  but 
a  single  ant  dragged  the  whole  bunch  home.  Afterwards 
I  saw  an  ant  drag  home  five  green  ones  that  hadn't  fallen 
apart  yet.  She  must  have  cut  the  stalk  off.  Maybe  the 
milk  of  the  green  seeds  was  for  the  babies. 

ALBERT.  What's  the  longest  distance  you  ever  saw 
one  ant  carry  another? 

KENNETH.  Forty-five  feet,  and  then  the  carrier  lost 
it.  It  was  like  this.  I  threw  some  dirt  on  an  ant.  An- 
other picked  up  the  dusty  one  and  started  west  over  an 
awful  road — no  trail  and  plenty  of  stones,  matted  grass 
and  weeds. 

ALBERT.     Anything  interesting  happen? 

KENNETH.  When  the  carrier  laid  the  dusty  one  down 
to  rest  for  the  fourth  time,  it  escaped,  but  went  on  straight 
away  from  home.  I  picked  it  up,  could  find  nothing  the 
matter  with  it,  and  laid  it  down.  After  it  had  hunted  for 
me  for  half  an  hour  I  took  it  home. 

ALBERT.     Then  what? 

KENNETH.     Three  doctors  stopped  it  and  felt  it  over. 


CARRYING  THINGS.     TRAILS  99 

Two  of  them  went  away,  but  two  more  came  to  consult. 
The  dusty  ant  lay  down  on  its  side  and  was  given  a  good 
examination. 

ALBERT.  What  did  the  doctors  say  was  the  matter 
with  it? 

KENNETH.  Bad  news,  I  guess.  The  poor  thing  jumped 
up,  ran  away,  and  bumped  into  several  ants,  making  them 
open  their  jaws.  I  returned  it  several  times,  and  then  let 
it  go. 

FLORENCE.  It  must  have  had  some  catching  disease. 
Oh,  yes,  maybe  it  had  mould  on  it  or  mites.  There  being 
no  pest  house,  the  only  thing  to  do  was  to  carry  it  or  drive 
it  out  of  the  neighborhood.  It  would  never  do  to  let  it  go 
into  the  house  among  2,000  ants.  You  see,  I've  saved 
Cecil  the  trouble  of  explaining  this. 

ALBERT.  What  would  I  have  to  do  to  equal  what  that 
worker  did  in  carrying  a  sister  forty-five  feet? 

CECIL.  Take  a  man  in  your  teeth  and  carry  him  two 
and  a  fifth  miles  over  stones,  across  logs,  through  brush, 
across  canyons,  and  over  hills. 

KENNETH.  I  have  found  a  Harvester  trail  one  hundred 
eight  feet  long.  Forty  feet  of  it  has  been  cleared  of 
dead  grass  and  is  a  fine  runway.  It  led  to  a  pigeon  house. 
I  guess  you  see  why. 

ALBERT.  I  know  a  colony  like  ours  that  have  opened 
up  a  branch  nest  fifteen  feet  away,  cleared  a  three-inch 
runway  through  the  dead  grass,  and  the  ants  pass  back 
and  forth. 

CECIL.  I  find  that  our  kind  of  ants  make  trails  across 
the  vacant  lots  around  here  just  like  we  do.  I  don't  know 
whether  the  ants  really  clear  the  trail  of  weeds  or  do  as 
we  do — wear  them  off. 

ALBERT.     Maybe  we  can  find  out. 

CECIL.     I  have  beaten  the  rest  of  you.    I  know  a  colony 


100       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

like  ours  that  are  going  one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  to  their 
harvest  field.  One  hundred  feet  is  along  the  sidewalk.  I 
counted  fifty  dead  or  crippled  ants  on  that  sidewalk.  "What 
would  man  have  to  do  to  equal  this  hundred  and  sixty 
foot  trip  for  grain? 

DOROTHY.     You  answer. 

CECIL.  If  an  ant  is  a  quarter  of  an  inch  long  and  man 
sixty  inches,  he  would  have  to  travel  exactly  nine  miles 


A  Brownie  Going  After  a  Load  of  Grain. 

and  bring  home  a  mouthful  of  food  for  the  family  each 
trip — or  his  arms  full. 

FLORENCE.  I  guess  Brownies  use  the  ants  for  horses. 
It  is  the  Brownies  that  are  wise,  not  ants.  I've  drawn  a 
picture  to  show  you  how  they  look.  I  guess  no  Brownie 
ever  asks  to  ride  behind — unless  it  is  a  good  piece  behind. 

ALBERT.  Your  trail  of  ants  is  about  four  inches  wide, 
but  when  danger  threatens  you  widen  it  out  to  a  foot  or 
more. 

ANT.  Wouldn't  your  line  of  soldiers  make  some  changes 
if  an  enemy  appeared? 


CARRYING  THINGS.     TRAILS  101 

ALBERT.  I  notice  that  an  ant  that  is  being  carried  by 
another  nearly  always  doubles  up  and  makes  no  fuss.  It 
acts  like  it  was  enjoying  the  ride. 

KENNETH.  Several  times  I've  seen  our  ants  carry  in 
bits  of  dry  leaves.  They  are  used  some  way  for  building 
purposes,  I  suppose,  to  stop  up  earth  cracks  with,  plaster 
them  up,  for  instance. 

ALBERT.     An  ant  was  taken  by  the  feelers  close  up  to 


Position  of  Ant   When  Being  Carried. 

the  head,  and  carried  away  back  down.  She  must  have 
resisted  an  officer. 

CECIL.  It  is  said  that  sometimes  an  ant  will  grasp  the 
waist  of  another  with  its  jaws  and  then  they  walk  along 
tandem.  Even  a  third  ant  may  be  added. 

FLORENCE.  Our  ants  were  carrying  home  bits  of 
broken  glass  this  evening,  a  distance  of  fifteen  feet.  Come 
to  think  of  it,  I  often  carry  home  things  that  are  of  no 
account — even  pieces  of  colored  glass. 

KENNETH.  I  know  you  carry  out  the  dead,  but  don't 
you  have  any  ceremony? 


102       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ANT.  We  simply  carry  our  dead  to  the  rubbish  heap 
or  beyond.  Probably  the  stories  about  the  funeral  cere- 
monies of  ants  are  not  true. 

CECIL.  I  saw  an  enemy  clip  the  head  off  one  of  your 
ants.  You  simply  carried  the  head  and  body  to  the  rubbish 
heap. 

Fighting,  Ammunition. 

KENNETH.  It's  wrong  for  us  to  get  it  into  our  heads 
that  the  different  ants  of  a  neighborhood  are  always  fight- 
ing each  other,  with  intent  to  kill.  If  I  should  drop  one 
of  our  ants  into  the  home  of  the  Acrobats,  they  would 
chase  her  out  in  a  hurry,  but  would  not  kill  her. 

ALBERT.  Yes,  and  if  I  should  drop  an  Acrobat  into 
the  home  of  our  ants,  they  would  pay  no  attention  to  her. 
Neighboring  colonies  know  just  what  each  other  will 
stand  and  what  they  won't.  So,  they  know  just  what  they 
dare  to  do,  and  respect  each  other's  laws. 

KENNETH.  And  any  ant  that  refuses  to  respect  these 
laws  is  likely  to  lose  its  life,  of  course.  We  are  not  now 
speaking  of  those  kinds  of  ants  that  live  by  robbery  and 
murder,  but  of  those  that  have  learned  to  make  a  living  in 
a  decent  way. 

ALBERT.  Might  the  acid  or  fluid  that  an  ant  can  give 
off  kill  an  enemy? 

ANT.  Yes,  or  paralyze  it  for  a  time.  Why,  some  bugs 
will  fight  you  with  an  odor.  Haven't  you  smelled  it? 
When  a  bee  stings  you,  you  wouldn't  know  it  if  it  were 
not  for  the  poison  that  is  injected  into  the  wound.  There's 
nothing  strange  about  an  ant  protecting  itself  with  poison. 

DOROTHY.  What  do  you  do  with  the  eggs,  babies, 
pupae,  young  wabbly  ants — yes,  and  the  kings,  queens  and 
welcome  guests  when  the  danger  signal  is  given? 


FIGHTING,  AMMUNITION  103 

ANT.     Rush  them  to  the  place  of  greatest  safety. 

KENNETH.    How  do  you  pull  the  legs  off  an  enemy? 

CECIL.  I  know.  A  few  ants  get  on  one  side  and  a  few 
on  the  other,  and  then  all  pull  at  once.  Sometimes  others 
help  by  cutting  at  the  joints.  They  pull  feelers  off  the 
same  way,  or  simply  cut  them  off. 

DOROTHY.  Which  whips  when  two  colonies  have  a  real 
battle? 

ANT.  That's  a  curious  question.  It  depends  on  num- 
bers, strength,  speed,  courage,  spirit,  confidence,  ammuni- 
tion, strategy,  patriotism,  morale — 

DOROTHY.  Stop.  I  don't  know  what  you  are  talking 
about. 

ALBERT.  I'm  interested  in  boxing.  If  you  and  another 
ant  were  going  to  box  or  fight,  how  would  you  go  at  it? 

ANT.  We  would  be  apt  to  face  each  other — heads  a 
short  distance  apart.  Then  our  feelers  on  the  same  side 
would  be  crossed;  one  of  us  would  say  "Ready,"  and  at  it 
we  would  go. 

DOROTHY.     What   is  your  most   dangerous   enemy  ? 

ANT.  The  most  dangerous  enemy  of  ants  is  ants,  and 
the  most  dangerous  enemy  of  man  is  man,  if  you  don't 
count  those  that  are  so  small  you  can't  see  them — moulds 
and  bacteria. 

KENNETH.  Are  big-headed  ants  all  soldiers— all  fight- 
ers }. 

ANT.  No,  indeed.  Some  of  them  can't  fight  at  all,  and 
just  use  their  awful  jaws  as  nut  crackers  for  the  whole 
family,  or  use  them  to  break  the  hard  shells  of  bugs  with. 

DOROTHY.     What  is  the  biggest  animal  ants  can  kill? 

ANT.  Pigs,  monkeys,  snakes,  and  so  on.  Why,  the 
native  Mexicans  used  to  punish  or  kill  their  enemies  by 
binding  them  to  nests  of  ants. 

KENNETH.     I  don't  know  whether  I  saw  a  battle  todav 


104      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

or  a  tug-of-war  game.  It  was  two  colonies  like  ours  that 
were  about  twenty-five  feet  apart  when  home. 

DOROTHY.     How  was  it? 

KENNETH.  A  few  would  line  up  on  each  side  and  pull 
in  opposite  directions.  There  were  about  twenty  of  such 
groups.  They  didn't  seem  to  hurt  each  other.  I  guess  it 
was  a  friendly  fight.  We'll  have  to  learn  more  about  this 
kind  of  a  field  meet. 

CECIL.  Two  colonies  of  the  same  kind  may  have  a  sort 
of  friendly  fight,  sham  battle,  or  tug-of-war.  Such  a  fight 
may  last  a  month.  No  harm  may  come  to  either  side  or 
one  colony  may  rob  the  other  of  its  grain.  The  ants 
robbed  may  or  may  not  leave  the  old  nest.  It's  a  little  as 
if  their  grain  was  put  up  as  a  wager  in  a  sham  battle. 

KENNETH.  Do  all  colonies  act  alike  when  attacked  in 
a  real  battle? 

ANT.  Oh,  no.  Large  colonies  usually  fight  and  small 
ones  usually  run.  Some  play  'possum,  while  others  leap 
around  to  dodge  the  enemy. 

KENNETH.  Then  it  depends  mainly  on  the  number  that 
can  be  hustled  together  for  defense. 

CECIL.  I  can  see  that  acid  would  be  dangerous,  but 
that  other  bad-smelling  stuff  wouldn't  cut  much  figure  in 
a  battle,  would  it? 

ANT.  Then  you  wouldn't  run  from  a  skunk?  I  see  that 
man  has  learned  to  use  gas  in  war. 

ALBERT.  I'd  like  to  see  a  real  battle  between  two 
colonies. 

ANT.     Watch  out  and  you  will  see  us  have  one. 

ALBERT.  But  I  don't  want  to  wait.  Kenneth,  tell  us 
about  the  one  you  read  about  in  Henry  McCook's  book  on 
Ants.  The  two  colonies  lived  under  the  sidewalk,  I  believe. 

KENNETH.    All  right,  if  you  will  use  your  imagination. 


FIGHTING,  AMMUNITION  105 

Place  something  the  ants  like  to  eat  on  the  pavement  be- 
tween the  two  colonies.  The  ants  of  No.  1  colony  find  it 
first.  Then  come  the  ants  of  No.  2  and  the  battle  begins. 

ALBERT.     All  right,   I  have   the  picture  so  far. 

KENNETH.  Recruits  come  and  pile  up  two  or  three 
deep  at  the  center  and  the  mass  looks  like  it  is  boiling. 
It  is  a  hand-to-hand  fight.  Now  the  great  mass  begins  to 
separate  into  groups.  In  all,  these  cover  several  square 
feet. 

ALBERT.  It's  all  right  if  I  only  knew  for  which  side  I 
am  to  root. 

KENNETH.  Generally  one  ant  is  fighting  one,  but  in 
places  it  is  two,  three,  four,  five  or  six  against  one.  Here 
several  have  surrounded  one  and  are  pulling  its  legs  off, 
and  there  they  are  tearing  one  to  pieces. 

ALBERT.     It's  a  battle,  all  right. 

KENNETH.  See  the  two  standing  on  hind  legs  with 
jaws  locked  and  trying  to  sting  or  gas  each  other.  Yonder 
it  looks  like  a  football  rush  and  here  a  tug  of  war.  This 
one  has  her  helpless  enemy  by  the  face  and  that  one  has 
lost  her  nerve,  is  running  wild  and  snapping  at  any  ant 
she  passes. 

DOROTHY.     Come  on,  Florence;  let's  go. 

KENNETH.  Now  some  ants  have  lost  a  feeler,  others  a 
leg,  a  few  have  but  one  leg  left,  and  some  are  cut  in  two. 
Still  recruits  come  rushing  in.  There  a  line  is  breaking  for 
home,  but  here  the  recruits  meet  and  still  grapple. 

ALBERT.     I  fear  you  are  nearing  the  end. 

KENNETH.  The  center  of  the  battle  now  sways  toward 
one  nest,  now  toward  the  other.  At  last  one  side  seems  to 
be  winning  the  day.  The  warriors  now  cover  a  space  six 
inches  wide  and  two  feet  long.  The  recruits  have  quit 


106       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

coming  and  the  ants  are  going  home,  leaving  the  dead  and 
wounded  upon  the  battlefield. 

ALBERT.     I  must  read  about  that  battle  myself. 

KENNETH.  Whole  legs  and  whole  feelers  and  whole 
bodies,  and  all  the  different  parts  of  each,  lie  everywhere, 
while  ants  with  different  lengths  of  stubs  struggle  amidst 
the  mass,  which  is  mainly  collected  in  windrows.  The 
battle  is  over  and  the  dead  and  dying  are  left  to  the  winds 
and  the  ghouls. 

ALBERT.  Didn't  either  side  get  the  meat,  or  whatever 
it  was? 

KENNETH.     Not  at  this  time  at  least. 

ALBERT.     How  long  may  such  a  battle  last? 

KENNETH.  For  hours,  days,  or  even  weeks,  the  book 
says. 

ALBERT.  I  wish  I  knew  whether  or  not  the  ants  went 
back  to  the  battlefield  and  either  gathered  up  their  own 
dead  or  that  of  the  enemy. 

KENNETH.  Do  you  suppose  ants  feel  pain  when  hurt, 
as  we  do? 

CECIL.  No,  or  they  wouldn't  continue  to  eat,  sometimes 
after  a  feeler,  leg  or  even  the  abdomen  has  been  cut  olf. 
They  may  feel  pain,  but  not  as  we  do. 

Heat  and  Cold. 

FLORENCE.  What  do  you  do  when  your  ants  get 
too  cold  down  in  your  nest? 

ANT.  Just  like  you  do — huddle  together.  You  know 
a  room  full  of  people  will  help  keep  it  warm.  A  school- 
room gets  warmer  after  the  children  get  in.  Well,  when 
we  huddle  together  in  a  small  room,  we  warm  each  other 
and  also  warm  the  room. 


HEAT  AND  COLD  107 

FLORENCE.    What  about  winter  time? 

ANT.  Most  ants  get  stiff  and  sluggish  below  sixty  de- 
grees. They  eat  and  move  about  but  little  then.  Even  in 
southern  California  we  don't  work  much  in  winter  time. 
If  short  of  food,  we  might  go  out  after  some  on  warm  days. 

FLORENCE.  I  know  an  ant  may  be  frozen  and  thaw 
out  and  be  as  good  as  new,  but  how  much  heat  can  an 
ant  stand? 

ANT.  This  was  tried  by  Miss  Fielde,  a  well-known  natu- 
ralist, and  the  ants  swooned  at  96  degrees  and  died  at  112. 
So,  if  you  hold  us  over  a  hot  stove  we  die. 

KENNETH.  I've  seen  ants  out  here  when  it  was  hotter 
than  that  next  to  the  ground,  especially  Honey  ants.  Lay 
your  thermometer  on  the  ground  at  noon  and  see  how 
much  hotter  it  is  where  the  ant's  head  is  than  where  yours 
is.  When  carrying  out  dirt  in  the  hot  sun,  the  ants  make 
mighty  good  time  in  getting  back  into  the  house. 

ALBERT.  We  seldom  have  a  hot  desert  wind  here,  but 
we've  been  having  one  for  three  days,  and  you've  been 
closing  your  doors  at  6 :30  in  the  morning,  instead  of  9  :CO, 
the  usual  time.  During  the  last  hot  wind  you  kept  your 
doors  open  all  day. 

CECIL.  The  speed  at  which  ants  travel  depends  en- 
tirely on  temperature,  according  to  Prof.  Harlow  Shaplej- 
of  the  Harvard  Observatory.  I  think  the  same  is  true  of 
the  rate  of  motion  of  jaws  and  other  parts  of  an  ant — 
even  in  battle. 


108       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  VII. 

August  20  to  September  5. 

Food. 

ALBERT.  A  few  scouts  brought  home  a  sample  of 
Bermuda  grass  seed.  Then  700  started  out  for  the  harvest 
field.  One  brought  in  a  branch  that  had  seven  seeds  on  it. 

ANT.  We  like  seeds  best,  but  we  bring  in  the  bodies  of 
many  animals,  also.  The  sow  bug  has  a  hard  shell  like 
the  turtle's,  and  we  can't  capture  it  alive. 

KENNETH.  When  I  tried  to  take  a  large  sleek  pupa 
case  away  from  you,  two  other  ants  helped  you  hold  on. 
After  I  dragged  it  six  inches  you  spent  fifteen  minutes 
trying  to  gnaw  one  end  open. 

ANT.  And  you  broke  the  end  open  for  me  and  I  tried 
to  crawl  inside.  You  thought  it  was  empty,  but  it  wasn't, 
for  we  dragged  it  home. 

ALBERT.  Sometimes  you  bring  one  kind  of  seed  home 
and  sometimes  another.  You  seem  to  take  whichever  is 
the  handier. 

ANT.  Of  course,  we  often  have  to  take  what  we  can 
get,  but  I  think  you  will  find  we  have  a  choice  in  some 
cases. 

DOROTHY.  If  you  are  about  blind,  I  don't  see  how  you 
find  such  small  seeds. 

ANT.  We  use  our  feelers,  mouth-parts,  feet  and  sense 
of  smell.  If  we  had  big  wet  eyes  like  yours,  they  would 
get  full  of  sticks  and  dirt,  and  they  wouldn't  be  of  any 
account  at  night  or  in  our  dark  house. 


FOOD  109 

KENNETH.  I've  never  seen  one  of  your  ants  take  a 
seed  away  from  another  and  take  it  home  to  get  the  credit. 

CECIL.     I  have — but  only  once. 

ALBERT.  The  next  day  after  I  gave  you  three  lumps 
of  sugar,  I  saw  you  drag  two  dead  queens  out  of  the  house. 

ANT.  Overdose,  maybe.  Still,  we  don't  care  much  for 
sugar. 

FLORENCE.  I  gave  your  ants  too  big  a  piece  of  fruit, 
and  they  buried  it. 

DOROTHY.  I  gave  our  ants  a  piece  of  apple.  You 
should  have  seen  them  drink  cider.  In  a  day  or  two  I 
cracked  the  seeds  and  the  ants  carried  them  into  the 
house.  Nothing  was  left  but  the  bare  core. 

FLORENCE.  When  I  feed  the  ants,  I  can't  understand 
why  they  so  often  carry  the  food  a  few  inches  away  from 
the  door  before  taking  it  in. 

KENNETH.  I  gave  our  ants  a  feast — a  pupa,  spider, 
and  a  large  grasshopper.  The  next  day  they  were  all  gone. 

FLORENCE.  And  I  served  a  piece  of  fruit,  almond  and 
a  dozen  insect  eggs  for  luncheon  today. 

CECIL.  One  of  ours  tackled  a  very  large  fly.  They  cut 
one  wing  off  and  were  working  the  other  up  and  down 
and  biting  it  at  the  base.  An  ant  then  tried  to  drag  the 
body,  but  couldn't.  Next,  a  queen  came  along  and  dragged 
it  an  inch.  She  then  picked  up  the  wing  that  had  been  cut 
off  and  carried  it  away. 

ALBERT.  I  have  counted  the  bodies  of  eighteen  Fuller's 
rose  beetles  lying  at  your  door.  I  don't  see  how  you  crack 
the  hard  shells. 

ANT.  I  told  you  how  we  suck  the  juices  out  through 
holes  we  make  at  the  joints,  but  we  could  also  get  our 
largest  ants  to  crack  the  shells  of  the  younger  ones. 


110      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  You  still  keep  a  good  supply  of  Carpenter 
bodies  lying  around  your  door. 

KENNETH.  How  can  I  get  some  skeletons  of  the  grass- 
hopper and  of  other  insects? 

ANT.  Give  the  insects  to  us.  We'll  eat  the  flesh  all  off 
and  carry  the  skeletons  out  for  you.  Some  insect  collectors 
get  ants  to  do  this  for  them. 

KENNETH.  I  gave  our  ants  some  honey,  but  they  didn't 
care  much  for  it.  I  then  placed  some  on  the  back  of  an 
ant,  and  it  ran  into  the  house.  I'll  bet  the  nurses  had  a 
sweet  time  cleaning  it  up. 

DOROTHY.     That  wasn't  very  nice  in  you. 

KENNETH.  I  let  some  honey  run  down  the  sides  of  the 
doorway.  The  ants  covered  it  up  with  sticks  and  dirt  so 
they  could  walk  over  it. 

CECIL.  They'll  cover  up  anything  they  do  not  want 
on  their  yard  if  they  can't  carry  it  away,  but  it  is  not 
because  they  want  to  bridge  over  it. 

KENNETH.  The  ants  don't  like  lard,  so  I  pasted  a 
little  on  an  ant  and  it  ran  inside  to  report  me.  About  a 
dozen  guards  rushed  out  and  stationed  themselves  near 
the  door. 

DOROTHY.     That  is  worse  yet. 

KENNETH.  Later  I  gave  the  ants  some  more  honey. 
This  time  I  spread  it  on  small  bits  of  paper.  That  night 
the  ants  carried  the  pieces  indoors  and  in  three  days 
carried  them  out  all  licked  clean. 

CECIL.  Maybe  the  Acrobats  visited  our  ants  and  ate 
most  of  the  honey. 

KENNETH.  I  fed  all  the  ants  some  raw  beef.  Ours 
never  touched  it,  but  the  Acrobats  ate  for  fifteen  minutes 
and  the  Longlegs  carried  theirs  indoors. 


FOOD  111 

DOROTHY.  Ours  didn't  care  for  the  milk  I  gave  them, 
but  they  liked  the  sardines. 

CECIL.  You  better  quit  feeding  them  so  much  or  they 
will  become  as  helpless  as  dogs,  cats,  horses,  cows,  sheep 
and  chickens.  They'll  starve  when  you  quit. 

KENNETH.  I  have  wet  a  piece  of  paper  and  a  piece  of 
tobacco  leaf  and  have  laid  each  at  the  door  of  our  ants, 
as  you  see.  Look!  The  ants  like  the  tobacco  water  the 
better. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  you'll  be  punished  if  I  tell.  Now 
they'll  die. 

KENNETH.  They  don't  act  like  it,  but  maybe  they 
wish  they  could.  I've  done  this  several  times  before,  and 
they've  always  preferred  the  tobacco  water  but  once. 

FLORENCE.  Did  anybody  but  you  ever  find  out  that 
ants  like  tobacco? 

KENNETH.  Yes.  After  I  discovered  it,  I  read  of  a 
farmer  near  Austin,  Texas,  that  had  to  hide  his  chewing 
tobacco  to  keep  the  ants  from  stealing  it.  And  near  the 
same  place  they  stole  a  farmer's  wheat,  too.  Did  you  ever 
read  the  story,  "Then  another  little  ant  went  in  and 
carried  out  another  grain  of  wheat"? 

ALBERT.  Ants  like  fats  and  oils.  They  squeeze  the  oil 
out  of  seed.  They  get  fats  out  of  game,  also.  Some  are 
great  hunters  for  live  game,  like  some  men,  but  more  of 
them  just  gather  up  the  dead. 

CECIL.  Ants  are  wise.  Sometimes  they  fatten  their 
stolen  babies  before  eating  them.  Mushroom  raisers  enrich 
their  gardens  with  liquid  fertilizer  and  with  more  chewed- 
up  leaves.  Ants  harden  their  walls  with  formic  acid. 
Some  kinds  cover  their  mounds  with  gravel  roofs.  This 
doesn't  wash  off,  either.  These  little  Garden  ants  often 
cover  the  inner  slope  of  their  craters  with  small  pebbles. 


112      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

KENNETH.  If  a  colony  couldn't  get  other  food,  might 
they  eat  their  eggs? 

ANT.  Yes.  If  a  colony  were  likely  to  starve,  they 
would  first  quit  making  any  large  soldier  forms.  Next, 
they  would  quit  making  kings  and  queens,  too,  except  one 
queen.  Finally  the  workers  would  die  of  starvation,  leav- 
ing nothing  of  the  colony  but  one  queen.  You  see,  there 
is  a  chance  yet  for  the  colony  to  be  saved  if  the  queen  can 
get  enough  food  to  keep  alive. 

FLORENCE.  Ants  gather  nuts  a  good  deal  like  squir- 
rels do,  don't  they? 

ALBERT.  Yes.  For  instance,  father  saw  a  bushel  of 
nuts  in  the  stump  of  a  tree  that  had  just  been  cut  down. 
When  the  workmen  went  back  after  the  nuts  the  next 
morning  they  had  all  been  removed.  What  put  them 
there  and  what  took  them  away? 

KENNETH.  Have  you  a  storage  room  for  your  seeds 
and  babies? 

ANT.  Some  ants  have  and  others  scatter  them  around 
on  the  floor  anywhere,  same  as  man.  Now  laugh!  I  don't 
mean  man  scatters  his  babies  around. 

KENNETH.  I  placed  a  piece  of  almond  by  the  door, 
and  about  a  dozen  Acrobats  came  and  dined  with  ours, 
although  they  had  no  invitation. 

CECIL.  At  last  I  thought  I  was  going  to  see  our  ants 
carry  the  dead  body  of  one  of  their  kind  home  for  food. 
I  uncovered  the  body  in  a  cloth  by  the  nest.  The  ants 
examined  it  carefully.  One  of  them  started  indoors  with 
it,  but  was  held  up  by  several  others. 

ALBERT.     Go  on. 

CECIL.  After  a  pulling  contest,  an  ant  took  the  body 
away  from  the  carrier,  walked  away  five  inches,  stopped 
to  think,  turned  and  started  for  the  door  again,  where 


FOOD  113 

there  was  another  pulling  match.  The  body  was  again 
taken  away  from  the  pall-bearer  and  carried  in  one  door 
but  out  another.  At  this  point  I  lost  track.  So  I  don't 
know  what  to  think. 

ALBERT.  Look  at  this  chaff  of  15,000  filaree  seed  that 
has  been  gathered  and  hulled  within  the  past  six  weeks. 
And  we  don't  know  how  much  has  blown  away. 

DOROTHY.  I  wonder  how  our  ants  get  along  without 
salt. 

CECIL.  They  don't  need  any.  Some  large  animals  can 
live  without  salt.  The  Blond  Eskimos  of  the  Arctic  region 
have  never  seen  many  white  men  and  never  tasted  salt. 
They  live  on  fish,  meat,  entrails  of  birds,  stomachs  of  deer, 
liver,  berries  and  greenery  of  the  short  summer.  I  have 
read  that  they  are  the  healthiest  people  in  the  world. 

DOROTHY.  Then  the  use  of  salt  is  mostly  a  habit.  But 
at  this  place  the  air  carries  some  salt  from  the  ocean. 

FLORENCE.  I  fed  the  Carpenters  some  fruit,  but  they 
were  quite  shy.  A  few  ate  while  a  dozen  kept  running 
round  and  round  the  fruit — on  guard,  maybe. 

DOROTHY.  A  neighbor  girl  put  a  large  berry  into  her 
mouth  and  something  bit  her  tongue.  After  the  lone 
Carpenter  had  captured  her  she  captured  it. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  a  pup  catching  and  eating  some  Car- 
penters. He  was  careful  how  he  snapped  them  up. 

KENNETH.  An  ant  came  home  after  the  door  was 
closed.  I  gave  her  a  fly.  She  picked  it  up,  ran  back  and 
forth  past  the  door  until  she  knocked  it  down,  and  then 
carried  the  fly  inside. 

DOROTHY.  Look  at  this  fine  white  sand  scattered  all 
over  the  yard. 

CECIL.     That  isn't  sand.     It's  little  balls  of  flour  that 


114      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

the  ants  have  dumped  out  of  their  mouth  pouches  after  the 
food  had  been  dissolved  out. 

ALBERT.  I  read  of  a  fungus-growing  ant  that  laid  ten 
to  twelve  eggs  a  day  for  ten  days,  and  nine  out  of  every 
ten  eggs  were  eaten  by  the  mother.  Later  eggs  were  fed 
to  the  babies,  also. 

KENNETH.  Just  see  what  I  picked  up  on  the  crater 
today : 

21  heads  of  Carpenters. 

19  abdomens  of  same. 
6  bugs  1/8   of  an  inch  long. 
4  bugs  y±  of  an  inch  long. 
2  earwigs  %  an  inch  long. 
2  sow  bugs. 
1  of    our    ants — 55    in    all. 

ALBERT.  I  suppose  this  food  will  be  served  in  the 
dining  room  as  needed.  It  keeps  better  out  in  the  sun 
than  it  would  in  the  house. 

KENNETH.  One  of  our  ants  attacked  a  small  beetle, 
but  soon  let  go  and  began  to  cut  up  high  jinks.  Then 
another  followed  up  the  attack  as  the  bug  was  running 
away,  but  got  a  dose  of  poison,  too,  and  stopped  to  work 
with  herself.  A  third  ant  was  more  successful,  for  she 
bagged  the  game  and  took  it  home. 

ALBERT.  The  bug's  ammunition  was  finally  all  gone, 
I  suppose. 

FLORENCE.  You  toted  twelve  grape  seed  home  and 
into  the  house  and  the  next  day  you  carried  them  all  out. 
Didn't  you  know  you  couldn't  crack  them?  Foolish  ants! 

ANT.  Maybe  we  wanted  to  lick  the  dried  juice  that 
was  on  the  outside. 

FLORENCE.    Even  some  ants  that  were  mining  stopped 


FOOD  115 

to  carry  them  back  into  the  house  after  I  cracked  the 
seeds. 

ANT.     Well,  wasn't  that  all  right? 

FLORENCE.  I  dropped  some  Bermuda  grass  seed  at 
your  door,  and  what  do  you  think?  Hundreds  of  your 
ants  walked  right  over  it  before  they  had  sense  enough 
to  know  it  was  the  same  kind  they  were  going  sixty  feet 
for.  When  you  get  your  head  set,  you  can't  change  it. 

ANT.  You  don't  always  see  things  either,  unless  you  are 
looking  for  them,  and  sometimes  not  then.  That  seed 
didn't  smell  right,  anyway,  because  you  had  handled  it. 

KENNETH.     An  ant  combed  the  fuzzy  hairs  of  a  fire- 


Combing  a  Hairy  Seed. 

weed  seed  for  half  an  hour,  stopping  every  ten  minutes  to 
rest.  I  pitied  her,  picked  the  seed  up,  rolled  it  between  my 
thumb  and  finger,  fixed  it  nice  for  carrying  home,  and 
gave  it  back  to  the  ant. 

ANT.  Of  course  she  wouldn't  touch  the  seed,  because 
you  had  changed  the  odor  and  feel  of  it. 

KENNETH.  No,  although  I  picked  the  seed  up  on  a 
straw  and  shoved  it  into  her  face  several  times.  She  just 
kept  on  hunting  for  her  seed. 

ANT.  That  seed  is  so  small  and  so  hard  to  carry  that 
we  don't  bother  with  it  unless  food  is  scarce. 

CECIL.     A  seed  like  the  dandelion  relatives  or  the  star 


116      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

thistle  is  quite  hard  for  you  to  carry  or  drag.  Each  has 
about  a  hundred  fine  hairs  standing  out  at  one  end,  and 
each  hair  has  a  hundred  barbs  on  it  to  catch  on  everything 
you  pass. 

FLORENCE.  Often  you  take  one  of  these  seeds  in  your 
jaws  and  carry  it  as  I  do  a  parasol,  over  your  head  or 
in  front. 

CECIL.     The  seed  of  the  filaree  has  a  long  tail  that  is 


STAR  THISTLE  SEED- -Umbrella" 


CARRYING  BOMB  THE  SEED  OP  THE  FILARBR 


twisted  like  an  augur,  and  this  tail  ends  in  a  scythe  hook 
to  catch  on  weeds  and  sticks. 

ANT.  In  rain  or-  dew  this  augur  untwists  and  after- 
wards the  hot  sun  twists  it  up  again.  The  seed  is  trying 
to  plant  itself,  but  sometimes  makes  a  mistake  and  traps 
an  ant  in  its  coil.  The  filaree  is  one  of  the  best  seeds,  but 
hardest  to  drag. 

CECIL.  In  two  evenings'  time  I  saw  you  carry  out  the 
chaff  of  1,200  grains  of  oats. 


FOOD  117 

ANT.  That  wasn't  enough  to  last  a  thousand  ants  very 
long. 

KENNETH.  I  placed  some  ginger,  salt,  pepper,  sugar, 
a  fly,  a  slice  of  banana  and  peach  on  your  trail.  The 
workers  paid  no  attention  for  a  long  time,  but  finally 
tackled  the  fly  and  sugar. 

ANT.     Our  workers  seldom  stop  on  the  trail  to  eat. 

FLORENCE.  You  looked  like  a  monkey  the  other  day 
when  you  were  rolling  that  large  pupa  case  home. 

ANT.  There's  another  animal  that  looks  more  like  a 
monkey  than  I  do. 


FLORENCE.  I  see  you  can  stand  upright.  See  if  you 
can  do  it  and  carry  your  umbrella. 

ANT.     All  right     Here  I  go. 

KENNETH.  You  made  seven  feet  a  minute  going  after 
some  of  that  woolly  fireweed  seed,  but  only  one  foot  a 
minute  coming  back  the  thirty  feet.  Another  ant  aver- 
aged only  one  foot  in  three  minutes  in  bringing  home  a 
filaree  seed.  The  augur  tail  and  scythe  hook  caught  on 
everything. 

CECIL.  Another  one  of  those  seeds  caught  and  the  ant 
couldn't  pull  it  loose.  Ant  No.  2  came  along,  helped  un- 


118       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

fasten  it,  and  then  went  on  to  the  seed  field.  Now,  what 
do  you  think  of  that? 

KENNETH.  The  harvest  field  at  the  end  of  the  trail 
was  about  three  feet  square  this  evening.  As  soon  as  an 
ant  could  find  a  seed  it  would  straighten  up,  pause  a 
moment,  and  then  start  the  right  direction  for  home.  How 
did  it  know  which  way  home  was? 

ANT.  I  told  you  we  are  guided  by  the  direction  of  light 
and  by  the  trail  odor  more  than  anything  else. 

KENNETH.  I  took  a  seed  away  from  an  ant  and  put 
her  back  on  the  trail.  After  searching  a  while,  she  went 
three  feet  toward  home  and  then  turned  and  went  back  to 
the  harvest  field. 

CECIL.  Florence  cracked  sixteen  muskmelon  seed  for 
you.  How  long  will  they  last  your  ants?  I  believe  I  can 
eat  my  weight  in  a  month. 

ANT.  Oh,  say  a  thousand  days  for  one  ant,  or  one  day 
for  a  thousand  ants. 

FLORENCE.  No  wonder  you  have  to  hustle  to  get 
enough  food  for  your  family,  is  it? 

KENNETH.  How  do  you  keep  seeds  from  sprouting 
when  you  take  them  under  ground?  Man  doesn't  know 
how. 

ANT.    You'll  find  that  we  fail  sometimes. 

FLORENCE.  Why  do  you  carry  out  some  of  your  seed 
without  hulling  it? 

ANT.  You  know  it  may  be  spoiled,  or  impossible  for  us 
to  hull  it,  or  it  may  be  a  mistake. 

CECIL.     Tell  us  how  you  treat  your  grain. 

ANT.  First,  we  generally  pile  up  the  grain  as  we  bring 
it  in  and  leave  it  to  go  through  a  sweat. 

FLORENCE.     And  what's  a  "sweat"? 

ANT.    As  long  as  grain  lies  out  it  keeps  some  moisture 


FOOD  119 

in  it.  Then  if  it  is  stacked  or  piled  up,  it  gives  off  this 
moisture,  or  sweats.  After  this  it  is  drier  than  before 
and  threshes  easier  and  keeps  better.  All  farmers  know 
this.  After  the  grain  is  hulled  we  store  the  kernels  and 
carry  the  chaff  out,  just  as  farmers  do. 

CECIL.  I  see.  And  if  you  didn't  put  it  through  a  sweat 
before  threshing,  the  kernels  would  go  through  one  after- 
ward and  spoil.  Wise,  aren't  you? 

ALBERT.  I  see  you  wait  until  the  grain  falls  to  the 
ground  before  you  search  for  it. 

ANT.     Not  always,  as  you  will  find  later. 

ALBERT.  We  boys  used  to  gather  nuts  in  the  cast  and 
store  them  away  for  winter,  just  like  you  do. 

DOROTHY.  Why  go  so  far  for  seed?  Food  must  be 
getting  scarce. 

ANT.  This  time  of  year  most  plants  are  dead,  and  their 
seeds  have  blown  away  or  have  walked  away,  or  have  dug 
or  bored  themselves  into  the  ground,  or  have  been  eaten. 
So  the  seeds  are  hard  to  find,  and  there  are  but  few  living 
weeds  to  secrete  fluids  for  ants. 

ALBERT.  I  see  the  Carpenter  and  several  other  insects 
getting  something  off  the  green  plants  around  dwellings. 

KENNETH.  There  are  only  three  in  our  family.  So  I 
can  hardly  imagine  a  thousand  or  two  of  your  ants  march- 
ing up  to  the  lunch  counter  to  eat.  It  must  take  a  good 
deal  of  flour.  And,  since  you  have  no  colony  mill  to  grind 
your  seed,  you  have  to  rasp  the  flour  off  the  grain  with 
your  mouth  parts.  Nixey  on  your  flour  mills  for  me. 

ANT.  All  living  things  have  to  hustle  to  make  a  living 
or  there  will  soon  be  no  more  like  them.  So,  fossils  are  all 
that  is  left  of  many  a  once  living  race.  You  think  your 
inventions  (improvements)  are  symbols  of  civilization,  but 


120       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

they  may  prove  to  be  symbols  of  destruction.  You  can't 
tell  yet.  Are  you  more  civilized  than  the  ancient  Greeks? 

CECIL.  Our  ants  have  hulled  a  thousand  salt  grass 
seeds  and  dumped  the  hulls  out. 

ALBERT.  Some  think  that  the  ants  nip  the  germ  of  a 
seed  to  keep  it  from  sprouting,  but  I  can't  see  that  they  do. 

CECIL.  I'd  rather  think  they  treat  their  grain  with 
some  fluid  for  that  purpose.  I've  noticed  that  some  of  the 
oats  kernels  are  ripped  open  down  the  soft  side. 

ALBERT.  Many  ants  seem  to  depend  mainly  on  plants 
for  food. 

CECIL.  Yes.  Plants  produce  seed,  the  chief  food  of 
many  ants.  They  give  ants  many  kinds  of  sap  from  differ- 
ent parts.  Plant  lice  and  scales  live  on  the  juices  of 
plants,  change  them  a  little  and  feed  them  to  ants.  Plants 
furnish  ants  with  water  in  dry  times.  They  furnish  homes 
for  ants  and  protection. 

Do  Certain  Ants  of  a  Colony  Do  Certain  Kinds  of  Work? 

ALBERT.  Your  colony  has  many  different  kinds  of 
work  to  do.  Are  certain  ants  assigned  to  each  kind?  That 
is,  do  you  have  "division  of  labor"? 

ANT.  We  have  foragers  that  gather  food,  threshers  that 
husk  it,  laborers  that  carry  out  the  chaff,  miners  that 
make  our  house,  graders  that  shape  our  yard,  wood  chop- 
pers to  clear  our  ground  and  make  our  trails,  and — 

ALBERT.     Hold  on!     You  are  claiming— 

ANT.  We  have  policemen  to  guard  our  house;  soldiers 
that  are  ready  to  fight ;  doorkeepers  at  our  granaries ; 
nurses  for  our  eggs,  babies,  kings,  queens  and  hungry 
workers;  undertakers  to  care  for  the  dead,  crippled  and 
sick,  and  servants  to  wash  us  and  keep  us  clean. 

ALBERT.     You  are  claiming  too  much. 


THE  ANT  LION  121 

ANT.  Why  don't  you  wait  until  I'm  done?  While  some 
ants  have  division  of  labor,  our  workers  can  do  any  of 
these  things. 

ALBERT.  Well!  Jack  of  all  trades,  aren't  you?  But 
when  you've  started  to  do  one  thing  you  don't  like  to 
change  off  to  another. 

ANT.  Maybe  we'll  develop  castes  that  can  do  but  one 
kind  of  work  each,  after  we've  been  on  earth  longer.  But 
I'm  afraid  we  shall  lose  by  it  rather  than  gain.  Has  a 
man  gained  much  when  he  can't  do  anything  but  punch  a 
button?  Our  king  is  a  sample  of  a  caste.  Look  how 
helpless  he  is. 

ALBERT.    Well,  don't  get  excited. 

ANT.  The  Honey  ant  has  division  of  labor.  With  some 
other  ants  the  occupation  changes  with  age — nurse,  for- 
ager, warrior,  guard  and  even  mother — as  the  ant  passes 
from  youth  to  old  age. 

The  Ant  Lion. 

KENNETH.     What's  an  Ant  Lion? 

ANT.  It's  a  big-jawed  baby  of  a  winged  insect,  that 
makes  a  funnel  shaped  hole  in  sand  or  decayed  wood  for 
us  to  fall  into  and  be  eaten. 

KENNETH.  I  suppose  the  sand  rolls  under  your  feet 
when  you  try  to  climb  out.  You  oughtn't  to  kick  about 
this,  for  I  think  that  you  sometimes  use  your  crater  as  a 
trap  for  this  same  purpose. 

CECIL.  The  baby  ant  lion  lives  at  the  bottom  of  the 
funnel.  I  saw  one  run  its  long  jaws  out  and  grab  a  fly  that 
had  dropped  into  the  trap. 

ALBERT.     I  saw  a  dozen  such  traps  the  other  day.     I 


122       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

dropped  a  big  red  ant  in  one,  but  it  finally  escaped, 
although  it  was  showered  with  sand  by  the  lion  to  try  to 
knock  it  back.  I  threw  two  small  pebbles  into  another 
den  and  the  lion  thumped  them  out,  too.  She  scooped  the 
pebbles  and  dirt  onto  her  shovel-shaped  head  with  her  flat 
forelegs  and  then  pitched  them  out, 

FLORENCE.     What  if  a  pebble  was  too  big? 

ALBERT.  She  would  put  it  on  her  back  and  then  walk 
out  backwards. 

FLORENCE.    Did  you  give  her  any  more  ants? 

ALBERT.  Yes.  I  dropped  in  a  smaller  one  and  it  got 
caught  by  the  foot.  Then  I  tried  the  little  red  ants  and 
they  couldn't  get  out  of  the  trap.  But  the  lion  was  afraid 
of  them,  and  I  don't  blame  her. 

KENNETH.  I  know  that  insect,  but  I  don't  know  its 
name. 

FLORENCE.  So  do  I.  When  I  say,  "Ooly,  ooly,  up  the 
ground"  several  times,  it  comes  up. 

KENNETH.  It  does  just,  as  well  to  say,  "Doodlebug, 
doodlebug,  come  up,  come  up,  come  up." 

FLORENCE.     Tell  me  more  about  this  lion. 

ALBERT.  Ants  dread  it  worse  than  you  do  a  real  lion. 
There  are  three  hundred  kinds.  They  live  for  a  few 
months,  but  if  food  is  scarce  it  may  be  three  years.  The 
depth  of  the  trap  depends  on  how  far  the  particular  lion 
can  throw  dirt.  Later  it  grows  wings  and  looks  like  a 
small  snake  feeder. 

The  Blood  of  Ants. 

CECIL.    Why  is  it  I  never  see  any  blood  in  an  ant? 
ANT.    Because  its  blood  has  no  color.    An  ant  has  blood, 


HAS  NO  SPECIAL  FRIENDS  123 

a  heart  to  pump  it,  about  twenty  breathing  pores  in  its 
body,  and  it  has  everything  else  that  it  needs. 

An  Ant  Has  No  Special  Friends. 

FLORENCE.  I  have  a  few  good  friends.  Show  me 
yours. 

ANT.  I  haven't  any  particular  ones.  All  our  ants  are 
alike  to  me.  I'd  divide  my  dinner  with  one  as  soon  as 
another. 


124      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

September  5  to  September  15. 

A  Visit  to  the  Ants  in  the  Evening1, 

KENNETH.  Well,  here  we  are  with  our  flashlight  at 
eight  o'clock  in  the  evening.  About  200  of  our  ants  are 
walking  around  over  their  premises  doing  nothing. 

ALBERT.  Watch  half  of  them  hike  into  the  house  when 
I  blow  my  breath  on  them  gently. 

KENNETH.  These  two  ants  have  been  biting  the  body 
of  a  dead  Carpenter  for  five  minutes,  and  now  one  of  them 
has  picked  it  up  and  carried  it  to  the  door  and  back  again. 

CECIL.  Yes,  and  now  another  carries  it  to  the  door 
again,  then  east  five  inches,  and  now  back  and  west  five 
inches. 

DOROTHY.  They're  just  trying  to  fool  you  and  you'll 
never  see  them  take  it  into  the  house. 

CECIL.  Not  so  fast.  Look !  After  another  journey  the 
body  is  carried  straight  into  the  house.  We  have  been 
trying  to  catch  our  ants  doing  this  trick  for  over  a  month. 

DOROTHY.  Here  come  six  queens  out  of  the  house. 
The  other  ants  pay  no  attention  to  them.  They  have 
divided  into  pairs  and  walked  to  the  top  of  the  ridge. 

KENNETH.  Look!  They  all  became  frightened  and 
ran  into  the  house  at  once,  but  two  have  come  out  again. 

DOROTHY.  Well,  never  mind  the  queens,  but  look  here. 
This  big  Carpenter  has  searched  all  over  two  sides  of  the 
yard,  and  is  now  trying  to  pull  the  body  of  a  dead  sister 


A  VISIT  TO  THE  ANTS  125 

loose  from  the  ground.  I  suppose  the  body  is  to  be  taken 
to  the  Carpenter  home  for  a  more  decent  burial. 

KENNETH.  Wrong  again.  It  has  carried  the  body 
right  up  to  the  door  of  our  ants  and  left  it.  Strange,  isn't 
it?  And  now  it  has  carried  a  clod  six  inches  away  from 
the  door. 

DOROTHY.  No  wonder  our  ants  like  the  Carpenter  if 
it  carries  food  and  clods  for  them — works  for  them.  Why, 
I  don't  believe  it  would  do  that  kind  of  work  for  its  own 
colony — at  least,  not  in  that  way.  It  is  trying  to  do  like 
ours. 

KENNETH.  This  Carpenter  is  now  walking  around 
over  some  of  our  ants  while  others  walk  up  to  it,  face  to 
face,  but  with  feelers  well  laid  back.  Now  it  has  stopped 
in  the  rubbish  heap  to  eat  a  piece  of  fruit. 

DOROTHY.  You  have  given  us  a  very  good  show  to- 
night. I  suppose  you  have  a  fine  one  every  evening.  We 
must  go  now.  Good  night. 

KENNETH.     Say,  wait  a  minute.     Do  ants  ever  dream? 

ANT.    Do  dogs! 

KENNETH.     Well,  pleasant  dreams. 

ANT.  Thank  you.  Here  are  passes  to  our  show  for 
tomorrow  evening. 

DOROTHY.  Hello,  Ant,  good  evening.  Here  we  are 
again.  Hope  you  will  put  on  a  good  show  like  you  did 
last  evening. 

ANT.  Glad  you  are  here.  About  200  of  our  ants  are 
loafing  around  on  the  yard,  while  a  number  of  foragers 
have  gone  out  in  two  directions  and  soon  ought  to  be 
bringing  something  home. 

KENNETH.  Look  at  that  ant  carrying  the  body  of  a 
big  Carpenter  to  the  top  of  that  tiny  post  on  your  yard. 


126       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ALBERT.  A  half  dozen  of  yours  have  taken  turns 
carrying  the  body  of  another  Carpenter  around  here. 

DOROTHY.  Why  don't  they  take  it  indoors,  or  to  the 
rubbish  heap,  or  eat  it,  or  do  something  with  it,  or  let  it 
alone?  They  make  me  nervous. 

ANT.     They'll  take  it  indoors  when  they  get  ready. 

KENNETH.  I'll  take  the  body  away  from  them.  There, 
one  grabbed  it  and  took  it  into  the  house. 

CECIL.  Here  lies  the  body  of  the  biggest  Carpenter  I 
ever  saw.  I'll  watch  and  see  what  you  do  with  that. 

FLORENCE.  I  have  here  a  pound  of  raisins,  and  I'll 
give  you  a  few  bits  for  letting  us  in  free. 

ANT.  It  smells  good,  but  we  don't  care  much  for 
raisins.  Look  out  for  the  Carpenters  now,  for  they  will 
smell  the  fruit  and  rush  this  way. 

ALBERT.  Aha,  here  comes  one  now.  Just  see  her !  She 
is  excited  and  is  trotting  all  over  our  ants,  knocking  them 
down,  snapping  at  them,  and  acting  half  crazy. 

FLORENCE.  I'll  give  her  a  whole  raisin  and  see  how 
long  it  takes  to  eat  a  meal.  It  is  now  six-thirty  in  the 
evening. 

KENNETH.  Come  out  here  to  the  trail  and  see  this 
large,  hard,  sleek  pupa  of  some  insect.  The  ants  can't  get 
hold  of  it,  but  have  worn  a  pit  a  quarter  of  an  inch  deep 
trying  to. 

FLORENCE.     Why  don't  you  help  them? 

KENNETH.  All  right.  I'll  tie  this  thread  around  it  for 
a  rope  to  pull  by,  carry  it  nearly  home,  and  let  the  ants 
drag  it  the  rest  of  the  way  by  the  rope.  Look!  Four  of 
them  are  riding  on  the  pupa  as  I  carry  it. 

FLORENCE.  What  did  your  ant  do  with  the  body  of 
the  big  Carpenter  she  carried  to  the  top  of  the  post? 

KENNETH.     You   yelled   for  me   to   look   at  something 


A  VISIT  TO  THE  ANTS  127 

else  and  I  forgot  to  watch.  I've  lost  it.  I  can't  see  a 
dozen  things  at  once. 

FLORENCE.  Where  is  your  big  insect  pupa  with  a  rope 
tied  to  it? 

KENNETH.  I  declare;  it's  gone,  too.  The  ants  must 
have  pulled  it  into  the  house  by  the  rope,  because  they 
couldn't  do  it  any  other  way. 

ALBERT.  Too  many  things  going  on  around  here  at 
once.  We  can't  see  them  all.  It's  better  than  a  three- 
ringed  circus. 

ANT.     Well,  you  asked  for  a  good  show,  didn't  you? 

KENNETH.  See  this  big  headless  grasshopper  I  threw 
down  by  the  door.  A  dozen  ants  are  biting  him.  See  him 
kick  an  ant  three  inches.  There  go  two  others  four  inches, 
and  there  goes  one  a  foot  bang  up  against  a  stone.  Ha, 
ha,  ha ! 

FLORENCE.     That's  nothing  to  laugh  about. 

KENNETH.    Grasshoppers  do  a  lot  of  harm. 

FLORENCE.  Why  is  this  ant  bringing  a  piece  of  egg- 
shell home  a  distance  of  fifteen  feet? 

ANT.     Maybe  there's  some  dried  egg  on  the  inside. 

DOROTHY.    I  saw  my  cat  eating  egg  shell  this  morning. 

FLORENCE.  It  has  taken  the  Carpenter  just  one  hour 
to  gorge  herself  \vith  that  raisin  I  gave  her.  Her  abdomen 
is  stretched  until  the  plates  have  pulled  apart,  showing 
the  white  elastic  bands  that  connect  them. 

CECIL.  Only  a  few  of  our  ants  stood  beside  the  Car- 
penter while  she  was  eating.  She  is  chasing  them  away 
now. 

DOROTHY.  The  body  of  that  awful  big  Carpenter  that 
Cecil  spoke  of  is  still  lying  here.  Our  ants  haven't 
touched  it. 

CECIL.    Yes,  but  look!     One  of  ours  has  held  her  head 


128      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OP  THE  GARDEN 

up  against  the  body  for  a  minute,  and  has  now  moved 
away  a  half  inch.  See,  she  has  doubled  her  abdomen  under 
her  fore  parts  for  a  fulcrum  and  tries  for  five  minutes  to 
pull  something  out  of  the  ground. 

KENNETH.  And  now  she  has  got  it  loose,  carries  it 
over  to  the  head  of  the  dead  Carpenter,  drops  her  load, 
moves  her  fore  parts  up  and  down  for  a  minute  as  if 
weeping,  turns  around,  walks  away  one  inch,  and — she 
has  fallen  over  dead. 


The  Ant  That  Fell  Dead. 

ALBERT.  Give  me  that  microscope  and  hold  the  flash- 
light. Aha!  This  explains  the  death.  The  head  of  an 
Acrobat  is  hanging  to  one  of  her  feelers.  The  jaws  pinch 
the  feeler  with  a  death  grip. 

CECIL.  Might  as  well  pinch  the  brain  as  a  feeler.  Our 
ant  must  have  gone  to  the  dead  for  help  or  sympathy,  or 
something  in  her  distress. 

KENNETH.  Well,  scouts,  we've  had  another  fine  show 
tonight. 

FLORENCE.  I  don't  like  tragedy.  Eight  o'clock. 
Time  to  go.  Good  night. 


EGGS,  BABIES,  PUPAE  129 

Eggs,  Babies,  Pupae. 

DOROTHY.    Do  your  queens  sit  on  eggs  to  hatch  them? 

ANT.     No,  but  the  queens  of  some  ants  do. 

DOROTHY.  Could  I  take  care  of  a  bunch  of  eggs  and 
hatch  them? 

ANT.  I'd  like  to  see  you  wash  them  and  pack  them 
around  for  a  month.  You'd  have  to  keep  them  coated 
with  saliva,  too,  or  they  would  spoil. 

DOROTHY.     Then  I'll  try  to  feed  and  raise  the  babies. 

ANT.  You  couldn't  bathe  them  and  keep  the  drafts, 
temperature  and  moisture  right. 

DOROTHY.    How  long  does  it  take  to  feed  a  baby? 

ANT.  Oh,  from  a  few  seconds  to  thirty  or  more — owing 
to  how  hungry  it  is  and  to  what  we  feed  it. 

FLORENCE.  Your  babies  must  take  cold  awful  easy, 
you  shift  them  around  so  much.  You  are  always  moving 
your  eggs,  too. 

ANT.  Think  of  your  own  baby  at  home.  Yes,  and  of 
that  incubator,  if  you  ever  took  care  of  one. 

FLORENCE.  How  does  the  pupa  get  out  of  the  cocoon 
after  its  legs  are  done  growing  and  it  is  ready  to  be  a 
real  ant? 

ANT.  The  nurses  cut  the  cocoon  open,  lift  the  young 
ant  out,  strip  off  its  thin  sheet,  if  it  have  one ;  straighten 
out  its  legs  and  feelers;  feed  it,  and  take  the  best  of  care 
of  it.  The  hairs  on  the  pupa  often  help  work  it  out  of  the 
cocoon. 

DOROTHY.  But  suppose  it  is  a  kind  that  has  no  cocoon, 
like  yours? 

ANT.  So  much  the  easier.  The  baby  changes  to  the 
pupa  and  the  pupa  to  an  ant,  and  that's  all  there  is  to  it. 


130      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

Queens. 

DOROTHY.  You  say  the  queen  loses  her  wings  after 
her  first  and  only  flight.  How  does  she  get  them  off? 

ANT.  Pulls  them  off  with  her  legs  and  jaws,  or  rubs 
them  off  against  something. 

DOROTHY.    After  her  wings  are  off— then  what? 

ANT.     Let  Kenneth  read. 

KENNETH.  "Before  taking  flight,  the  queen  has  eaten 
much  and  stored  away  enough  food  to  last  her  many,  many 
days  or  even  months.  She  generally  lights,  removes  her 
wings,  walks  off  alone,  digs  a  hole  in  the  ground  or  under 
something,  enlarges  the  inner  end  of  the  hole  a  little  for 
her  small  house,  and  then  shuts  the  door  up  tight." 

CECIL.  She  mines  her  house  all  alone.  Often  she  wears 
out  her  jaws,  rubs  off  her  hairs,  scratches  her  polished 
body,  and  is  a  sorry  sight  the  rest  of  her  life,  the  books 
say. 

DOROTHY.     That's  interesting,  if  not  beautiful. 

KENNETH.  I'm  not  done  yet.  "In  that  little  house, 
all  alone,  with  door  tightly  closed  and  no  food  to  eat,  she 
passes  weeks  or  months  before  she  lays  her  eggs.  Then 
she  has  the  care  of  the  eggs  until  they  are  hatched  and  of 
the  babies,  with  no  food  for  herself  or  children  until  they 
are  grown  up,  except  what  was  stored  in  her  body."  Busy! 
I  should  say  she  is. 

FLORENCE.     That's  worse  than  hoeing  beans. 

ANT.  Sometimes  it  is  ten  months  after  she  leaves  the 
old  home  before  the  children  in  the  new  one  have  grown 
up  and  are  ready  to  help  her  and  to  help  themselves.  The 
Carpenter  and  nearly  all  northern  ants  follow  this  method 
of  starting  a  new  home. 

CECIL.     As  this  queen  will  never  have  to  start  another 


QUEENS  131 

new  home,  she  will  never  have  such  a  hard  time  again. 
She  will  have  servants  to  attend  eggs,  babies  and  herself, 
and  she  will  have  nothing  to  do  the  rest  of  her  life  but  lay 
eggs. 

KENNETH.  After  the  queen  gets  her  new  colony 
started,  what  would  she  do  if  you  took  all  her  workers 
away  from  her? 

ANT.     Lay  more  eggs  and  start  a  new  colony. 

FLORENCE.  Where  does  the  queen  store  aU  the  food 
you  talked  about — in  her  craw,  I  suppose? 

ANT.  No.  Look  at  her  large,  powerful  shoulder  mus- 
cles. Food  is  chiefly  stored  in  these.  Later,  when  this 
food  has  been  used  up,  air  takes  its  place. 

FLORENCE.  No  wonder  the  nurses  take  such  good  care 
of  the  old  queens. 

DOROTHY.  How  does  it  come  that  when  I  drop  a 
queen,  she  can't  fly? 

ANT.  Just  before  she  takes  her  flight,  she  is  heavy,  and 
often  would  sink  in  water.  So  she  can't  fly  until  she  gets 
ready. 

FLORENCE.  I  suppose  that  some  queens  that  fly  away 
to  start  a  new  colony  have  hard  luck. 

ALBERT.  Let  me  read  to  you  about  that:  "Very  few 
out  of  many  thousand  succeed — only  the  strongest,  wisest 
or  luckiest  are  likely  to  succeed.  Many  perish  from 
drouth,  moisture,  heat,  cold,  parasites,  insects,  or  because 
they  did  not  store  enough  food  in  their  bodies  to  last  them 
through  the  starving  time." 

KENNETH.  I  found  a  winged  queen  today  and  gave 
her  to  your  ants,  but  they  wouldn't  have  her.  Six  of 
them  examined  her,  bit  her  wings,  and  then  started  to 
carry  her  away. 

ANT.    Even  if  she  had  belonged  to  our  colony,  our  ants 


2   ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


would  hardly  have  let  her  come  back  unless  they  were  out 
of  queens. 

FLORENCE.  Your  queens  are  one-half  longer  than 
your  largest  workers  and  have  wings  one-half  longer  than 
their  own  bodies,  but  how  about  queens  of  other  ants? 

ANT.  The  queens  of  some  ants  are  much  smaller  than 
the  workers,  while  those  of  some  others  are  so  large  you 
wouldn't  know  what  they  are.  Small  queens  sometimes  lay 
their  first  eggs  in  the  old  home. 

KENNETH.  Some  people  say  that  small  queens  may 
take  a  part  of  the  old  colony  along  when  she  leaves  to 
start  a  new  home.  You  know,  the  queen  bee  does  this. 

ALBERT.    Where  does  a  queen  make  her  first  nest? 

ANT.  In  many  cases  a  queen  makes  her  nest  in  sand  or 
soft  earth,  or  finds  a  suitable  earth  crack,  or  gets  under  a 
stone,  or  under  the  sidewalk.  Yet,  sometimes  she  has  hard 
mining  to  do.  Generally  she  goes  down  only  two  or  three 
inches. 

FLORENCE.  If  a  queen  should  lose  her  wings  before 
flying  away,  would  the  workers  drive  her  away,  anyhow? 
We  thought  your  ants  did. 

ANT.  Oh,  she  might  be  readopted  and  be  permitted  to 
lay  her  eggs  in  the  old  nest  and  continue  to  live  there. 
You  see,  that  some  colonies  have  been  known  to  use  the 
same  nest  forty  years  and  new  queens  would  have  to  be 
gotten,  either  from  their  own  colonies  or  from  others. 
They  would  prefer  to  adopt  a  queen  from  another  colony. 

DOROTHY.  I  saw  one  of  your  ants  drag  a  winged 
queen  out  on  her  back  by  her  front  legs.  After  an  effort, 
she  turned  over  and  ran  back  into  the  house.  Then  she 
walked  out  herself,  but  again  went  back. 

FLORENCE.    How  long  could  a  queen  go  without  eating 


QUEENS  133 

when  she  leaves  home  and  shuts  herself  up  in  her  cave  to 
found  a  new  colony? 

ANT.  The  greater  part  of  a  year,  and  the  large  workers 
can  go  almost  as  long — say,  seven  to  nine  months. 

FLORENCE.  That's  nothing  to  brag  about.  "Popular 
Science"  says  Anna  Garbero  lived  32  months  and  11  days 
without  taking  food  or  drink  of  any  kind. 

DOROTHY.  I  saw  one  of  your  wingless  queens  at  work 
today.  She  was  busy  on  the  second  relay  carrying  out 
chaff.  I  could  see  the  scars  where  the  wings  had  grown. 
I  have  never  seen  a  finer  looking  ant  nor  one  of  yours 
with  sharper  teeth. 

CECIL.  I've  seen  our  winged  queens  at  work,  but  not 
the  wingless  ones. 

FLORENCE.  I  think  your  queens  are  very  beautiful, 
with  their  gauzy  wings  one-half  longer  than  their  slender, 
shapely  bodies.  I  saw  one  at  work.  She  moved  an  earth 
pellet  from  one  side  of  the  yard  to  the  other,  and  then 
carried  some  seeds  into  the  house. 

ANT.     She  was  setting  a  good  example. 

FLORENCE.  A  light  breeze  caught  her  wings  several 
times  and  tipped  her  over.  I  picked  her  up,  examined 
her,  and  then  let  her  fall,  but  she  couldn't  fly. 

DOROTHY.     You  said  queens  differ  in  size. 

ANT.  Yes.  Some  queens  are  larger  than  others,  even 
in  the  same  colony.  An  ant  colony  is  made  up  of  kings, 
queens  and  workers.  A  few  odd  kinds  seem  to  be  combi- 
nations and  parts  of  these.  Of  course,  ants  have  their 
dwarfs  and  giants,  the  same  as  man  has. 

DOROTHY.  I  saw  a  queen  carry  out  several  loads  of 
dirt  today  after  all  other  ants  had  quit  on  account  of  the 
sun.  It  was  eleven  o'clock  when  she  stopped.  The  work- 
ers quit  at  nine. 


134      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.  One  of  your  ants  found  the  body  of  a  queen 
sixty  feet  from  home.  I  tried  to  take  it  away  from  her, 
and  pulled  the  body  in  two.  She  took  her  half  on  home 
and  I  delivered  mine. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  a  queer  thing  this  morning.  An  ant 
brought  out  a  wingless  queen  by  the  leg.  I  carried  her 
back  to  the  door.  She  turned  and  went  up  the  trail 
twenty-five  feet,  meeting  many  workers.  One  of  them 
caught  her  by  the  leg  and  held  her  a  while.  Then  she 
went  on  to  where  Kenneth  was. 

KENNETH.  I  had  a  queen  treed  on  a  little  stick  eight 
inches  high.  One  of  our  ants  was  holding  her  by  the  leg. 
I  laid  them  both  down  on  the  trail. 

ALBERT.  Yes,  and  by  that  time  my  queen  had  come 
up  and  tackled  yours.  Mine  soon  got  yours  by  one  leg  and 
your  worker  still  held  onto  another  leg.  So  your  queen 
was  in  a  bad  fix. 

KENNETH.  Of  course,  that  wasn't  fair,  so  I  pried  the 
jaws  of  the  worker  loose  and  then  the  jaws  of  your  queen. 
Both  queens  then  started  off  searching  under  stones,  going 
into  holes,  and  so  on,  as  if  trying  to  find  a  good  place  to 
start  a  new  home.  Both  were  fine  looking  and  had  good 
teeth. 

ALBERT.  It  looked  like  my  wingless  queen  was  forced 
away  from  home.  You  will  notice  that  the  queens  fought 
each  other.  Sometimes  two  queens  will  go  into  partnership 
and  build  a  new  home  together,  it  is  said. 

CECIL.  With  a  few  kinds  of  ants  the  kings  have  no 
wings,  and  with  still  fewer,  the  queens  have  none. 

ANT.  Any  colony  of  ants  does  not  have  the  same 
number  of  kings  and  queens.  Many  of  one  and  few  of 
the  other  is  the  rule.  In  the  same  neighborhood  the  kings 


QUEENS  135 

and  queens  of  the  same  kind  of  ants  are  likely  to  swarm 
on  the  same  day — even  at  the  same  hour. 

CECIL.  We  didn't  catch  our  kings  and  queens  swarm- 
ing this  time,  if  they  did  so,  but  we  saw  several  leave 
home  on  foot,  and  not  on  the  same  day,  either.  It  took 
this  colony  of  Acrobats  two  days  to  get  done  swarming. 

DOROTHY.  I  see  a  lot  of  kings  and  queens  all  around 
here  on  the  ground.  I  suppose  they  have  swarmed. 

CECIL.  One  day  I  saw  thirty  of  our  ants  elbow  two  of 
our  queens  back  into  the  nest.  Swarming  time  hadn't 
come  yet.  The  workers  seem  to  set  the  time  for  swarming. 

ALBERT.  Is  it  true  that  history  names  dates  when 
there  were  clouds  of  kings  and  queens  in  the  sky? 

CECIL.     Yes. 

KENNETH.  I  read  that  sometimes  the  queens  of  cer- 
tain ants  will  enter  the  homes  of  other  kinds,  kill  all  of 
them,  take  charge  of  the  babies,  and  thus  have  a  new- 
colony  of  workers  and  servants  or  slaves,  without  bother- 
ing to  build  new  homes  and  without  the  danger  of  a  starv- 
ing time. 

ALBERT.  When  their  own  children  grow  up  and  the 
captured  ones  die  off,  the  newcomers  will  have  colonies  of 
their  own  kind  only. 

FLORENCE.  Why  did  you  carry  a  pupa  queen  out 
today — the  one  that  hadn't  unfolded  her  wings  yet? 

ANT.    Because  there  was  something  the  matter  with  her. 

DOROTHY.  You  must  have  pretty  smart  nurses  to  be 
able  to  make  either  workers  or  real  queens  out  of  babies, 
just  as  they  please.  I  suppose  a  difference  in  food  and 
care  does  the  business. 

ALBERT.  Some  say  that  small  workers  may  come 
from  the  first  eggs  of  a  queen  and  so  may  be  half -starved 


136      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

when  babies,  or  they  may  hatch  in  late  fall  or  early  spring, 
when  food  is  scarce. 

ALBERT.  I  caught  a  queen,  but  none  of  the  workers 
missed  her.  She  was  so  strong  that  she  pulled  one  of  her 
wings  off  while  I  was  looking  at  her  wonderful  shoulder 
muscles. 

DOROTHY.  Now  she  can't  fly,  and  maybe  blood  poison 
may  set  in. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  her,  or  another  like  her,  at  work  for 
several  days  after  the  accident,  and  later  found  the  body  in 
the  rubbish  heap. 

FLORENCE.  Of  course,  the  queen  selects  the  first 
home,  but  who  selects  the  homes  when  ants  move? 

ALBERT.  The  workers,  of  course.  Since  some  ants 
send  out  scouts  to  search  for  food,  I  don't  see  why  scouts 
couldn't  select  a  place  for  a  new  home. 

FLORENCE.  I  can  easily  see  the  small  eye  in  the  cen- 
ter of  the  forehead  of  one  of  our  queens,  but  the  two  that 
are  a  little  higher  up  look  more  like  scars  to  me. 

CECIL.  Once  I  saw  one  of  our  queens  that  was  lop- 
sided and  another  one  that  had  lost  some  of  her  wings — 
or  else  she  never  had  the  right  number.  I  wish  I  had  ex- 
amined more  closely.  Maybe  these  were  some  of  the 
strange  forms  that  certain  ants  have  at  times. 

FLORENCE.  I  know  there  may  be  many  winged 
queens  in  a  nest  at  the  same  time,  but  they  will  fly  away. 
How  about  the  number  of  wingless  queens  in  a  nest — the 
kind  that  have  shed  their  wings  and  will  not  leave  their 
old  home  for  new  ones? 

CECIL.  There  may  be  as  many  as  fifty  of  these.  But 
even  if  a  colony  should  lose  all  their  queens  a  worker 
could  lay  eggs,  and  they  might  hatch,  too. 


KINGS  137 


CHAPTER  IX. 

September  15  to  October  18. 
Kings. 

KENNETH.  I  see  many  dead  kings  around  here  lately. 
I  suppose  that  is  because  they  all  die  as  soon  as  they  take 
their  first  flight. 

ALBERT.  Why  do  you  say  so  little  about  your  kings 
and  so  much  about  your  queens? 

ANT.  Because  there  is  nothing  to  say  about  the  kings. 
Notice  what  Kenneth  just  said.  Queens  may  live  for  years 
after  taking  their  first  and  only  flight,  and  go  on  laying 
eggs  and  governing  colonies. 


King  of  Black  Harvester  Ant. 

ALBERT.  I  think  you  might  at  least  say  that  kings 
have  good  eyes,  good  eyesight  and  good  feelers.  With 
their  three  small  eyes  on  top  of  their  heads,  they  are  sup- 
posed to  see  things  close  by. 

CECIL.  Our  workers  carried  out  four  kings  this  morn- 
ing. They  were  all  alive,  but  only  one  could  walk.  A 
worker  tried  to  cut  or  break  a  wing  off  one  of  the  kings. 


138       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

KENNETH.     How  did  the  four  kings  look? 
ALBERT— I  saw  them. 

Abdomen — Of  three,  caved  in. 

Five  plates  on  top  instead  of  four,  as  workers  and 
queens  have. 

As  large  as  thorax  and  three  times  as  wide  as  head. 
Head — Laughably  small. 
Wings — One  cut  off. 

Muscles  large. 

Looked  frail. 

Legs — Looked  weak  and  small. 

Feelers — Part  between  elbow  and  head,  quite  short. 
Mouth — Parts  were  large  and  hairy. 
Side  Jaws — Long,  slender,  toothed,  hairy,  weak. 
Eyes — On  sides  of  head — large,  bulging. 

Three  on  top  of  head — black,  shining,  bulging. 
Mustache — Right  decent. 
Color — Black. 

Spines — None  on  back  part  of  thorax. 
Hair — Plenty  all  over. 
Most  noticeable  feature — Tiny  head. 

FLORENCE — From  the  small  size  of  his  head,  I  suppose 
the  king  doesn't  do  any  worrying  or  even  any  thinking. 
He  leaves  that  for  others  to  do.  No  wonder  the  queen  has 
to  raise  her  first  children  all  by  herself  and  then  govern  a 
colony  for  a  life-time  without  his  help.  But  there's  one 
thing — he  never  bothers  his  head  or  hers  as  to  how  she 
does  it. 

DOROTHY— What  became  of  your  four  kings? 

CECIL.     None  of  them  lived  over  five  hours. 

ALBERT— Don't  forget  that  kings  have  fine  eyes  and 
feelers. 

FLORENCE.  Yes,  but  they  are  short  OH  brains.  They 
are  stupid.  They  don't  know  a  friend  from  an  enemy,  and 
can't  even  find  their  way  home  when  they  get  oft'  the 


KINGS  139 

crater.  Why,  kings  can't  even  engage  in  battle  for  pas- 
time. 

KENNETH.  I'd  as  leave  be  a  jail  bird  as  either  an  ant 
king  or  queen.  Nothing  to  do,  nowhere  to  go,  and  shut  up 
in  a  cell  room  much  of  the  time.  I'd  rather  raise  beans. 

FLORENCE.  You've  forgotten  that  the  mother  of  a  new 
colony  is  builder,  feeder,  nurse,  warrior,  and  everything 
else  until  her  first  children  grow  up.  She  works  hard 
enough  to  suit  anybody. 

ALBERT.  But  I  fear  it's  all  in  your  mind  about  queens 
governing.  Very  nice  to  think  about,  that's  all.  They 
just  lay  eggs.  The  colony  governs  itself.  Our  President 
has  much  more  to  do  with  ruling  than  a  queen  has. 

FLORENCE.  I  guess  you  boys  don't  know  that  all 
worker  ants  are  also  females.  Don't  they  make  a  success 
of  everything?  No  tramps,  no  spendthrifts,  no  misers,  no 
rich,  no  poor — good  home  makers,  good  nurses,  good  pro- 
viders, and  good  defenders  of  home. 

DOROTHY.  This  shows  that  females  can  govern,  raise 
a  family,  fight,  and  do  all  the  work  besides,  and  make  a 
success  of  it  all. 

FLORENCE.  Can  you  imagine  a  lazy,  brainless  king 
taking  care  of  eggs  and  babies?  Why,  he's  as  helpless  as 
a  baby  himself. 

KENNETH.  How  do  you  know  that  a  worker  is  a  kind 
of  queen? 

FLORENCE.  Because  it  is.  Workers  lay  eggs,  too, 
once  in  a  while,  but  often  the  eggs  don't  amount  to  much. 
Some  think  that  kings  are  hatched  from  worker  eggs — 
even  think  that  the  smallest  workers  of  a  colony  are 
hatched  from  the  eggs  of  workers.  Now,  what  have  you 
got  to  say? 


140      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.     No  wonder  women  want  to  vote. 

ALBERT.  Neither  kings  nor  queens  have  an  easy  life. 
At  swarming  time  the  wind  often  blows  them  into  water. 
Small  lakes  have  been  covered  with  their  drowned  bodies. 
Kings  live  only  a  few  months,  generally,  and  queens  that 
try  to  start  a  new  colony  nearly  all  die. 

FLORENCE.  With  certain  ants,  the  mother  ant  knows 
enough  to  take  some  mushroom  seed  (spores)  or  stalks 
with  her  when  she  leaves  home  to  start  a  new  colony.  She 
raises  mushrooms  to  help  her  and  the  babies  over  the 
starving  time. 

Government. 

DOROTHY.  Looks  like  we  better  find  out  something 
about  the  government  of  ants.  You  see  our  government 
defends  us  and  sends  us  to  school  so  we  can  learn  some- 
thing. 

ANT.  Maybe  man  will  be  born  so  wise  he  won't  have 
to  go  to  school  after  he  has  been  on  earth  as  long  as  we 
have.  Our  ants  go  to  work  pretty  young  and  do  the  work 
well  from  the  beginning. 

DOROTHY.  Well,  you've  seen  us  children  at  work  in 
the  bean  patch,  haven't  you?  Don't  we  do  it  well? 

FLORENCE.  If  you  have  such  good  government,  I 
should  think  so  many  ants  wouldn't  lose  their  lives. 

ANT.  Maybe  you  don't  know  that,  in  some  places,  one 
grown  person  in  every  eight  that  die  meets  death  by 
accident.  That's  as  bad  as  ants. 

FLORENCE.     Well,  how  about  your  government? 

ANT.  We  have  a  queen  and  you  have  a  king  for  gov- 
ernor. 


GOVERNMENT  141 

ALBERT.     You've  not  heard  of  our  Amazons. 

ANT.     Yes,  but  that's  a  myth. 

ALBERT.    What  do  you  call  your  kind  of  government? 

ANT.    It  is  Anarchistic  Socialism  in  form. 

ALBERT.     I  know  as  much  as  before  I  asked. 

ANT.  Well,  each  ant  does  its  part  willingly,  correctly, 
honestly  and  without  fear  of  law  or  ruler  and  without  any 
use  for  law  except  custom.  In  a  way  we  have  good  gov- 
ernment with  no  government.  When  everybody  obeys  the 
law,  you  don't  know  there  is  a  law. 

ALBERT.  Don't  you  have  to  learn  how  to  do  it,  and 
don't  you  know  why  you  do  it? 

ANT.     No,  to  both  questions. 

ALBERT.  We  know  so  much  we  have  to  have  govern- 
ment to  settle  our  quarrels. 

ANT.   Still,  our  government  isn't  so  different  from  yours. 

ALBERT.  I  know  we  have  a  President,  but  have  never 
seen  him.  I  have  read  and  heard  about  him. 

ANT.  And  I  know  we  have  a  queen  even  if  I  have  never 
seen  her.  I  know  her  by  the  queen  odor.  We  all  know 
when  she  is  in  the  house.  Without  her  we  should  soon 
have  no  colony. 

ALBERT.    I  see. 

ANT.  When  she  is  present  we  work  for  her,  but  not 
because  she  drives  us.  She  stands  for  our  government. 
We  know  what  to  do,  how  to  do  it,  want  to  do  it,  and  do 
it,  when  we  have  a  queen. 

ALBERT.  That's  about  the  way  we  do.  Our  President 
stands  for  our  government,  too.  We  feel  his  presence, 
although  we  have  never  seen  him ;  love  him,  obey  him,  even 
die  for  him  (the  government),  just  as  you  would  for  your 
queen. 

ANT.     I  know  our  queen  through  the  queen  odor.     You 


142      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

know  your  President  through  talking,  reading,  hearing  and 
thinking.  My  queen  does  not  drive  me  nor  your  President 
you.  We  do  right  because  we  want  to,  not  because  we 
are  driven.  So  do  most  of  you. 

ALBERT.     You're  about  right. 

ANT.  If  we  should  lose  our  queen  we  would  all  know  it 
at  once.  If  you  should  lose  your  President,  you  would  all 
know  it  at  once.  We  would  adopt  another  queen  if  neces- 
sary, and  you  another  President. 

ALBERT.     Right  again. 

ANT.  I  feel  the  presence  of  my  ruler  the  same  as  you 
feel  the  presence  of  yours.  Patriotism  moves  us  to  support 
our  queen,  and  you  to  do  the  same  for  your  President 
(government). 

ALBERT.  Without  patriotism  we  would  have  no  nation 
and  without  it  you  would  have  no  colony,  if  I  understand. 

ANT.  Neither  of  us  had  to  learn  to  be  .patriotic.  We've 
both  lived  on  earth  long  enough  to  inherit  that  feeling. 
Young  ants  and  people  are  as  patriotic  as  older  ones — 
sometimes  more  so. 

ALBERT.  But  your  government  is  in  your  mind  and 
ours  in  books. 

ANT.  Wrong.  Our  government  is  in  the  minds  of  our 
ants,  and  your  government  is  what  is  in  the  minds  of  your 
people,  not  what  is  in  law  books.  You  can't  enforce  a  book 
law  very  long,  unless  it  becomes  a  mind  law.  Animals 
that  obey  law  live,  those  that  don't  die. 

ALBERT.  Well,  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  man  can 
have  such  a  democratic  government  as  yours — everybody 
do  right  because  he  has  forgotten  how  to  do  any  other 
way.  But  I  think  we  understand  each  other  better  now. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  I  don't  think  I  know  what  you've 
been  talking  about,  although  you've  repeated  about  every- 


THE  HORNED  TOAD  143 

thing  you  said.  You  see  we  can  learn  and  you  can't — 
that's  the  difference. 

ANT.    I  can  learn — can  improve  a  little. 

FLORENCE.  You  should  learn  to  trade  and  to  use 
money.  Then  you  could  sell  some  of  your  grain  and  buy 
clothes,  purchase  fancy  food,  hire  a  trap-door  spider  to 
build  your  house  with  a  real  door,  buy  more  acid  to  fight 
with.  You  could  get .  a  blacksmith  to  nail  iron  claws  on 
your  feet  when  yours  wear  out,  and  put  iron  teeth  on  your 
jaws  for  mining.  Oh,  you  could  do  a  lot  of  things. 

ANT.  Aren't  we  lucky  not  to  need  money?  Does  man 
ever  worry  because  he  hasn't  enough?  We  don't.  Why 
wear  so  many  clothes  when  you  don't  need  them  ?  Why  not 
build  your  own  house?  And  haven't  we  enough  to  eat? 

FLORENCE.  Well,  you'll  never  be  smart  until  you 
learn  to  trade  and  to  use  money. 

ANT.  You  see  that  man  is  such  a  new  animal — the  last 
one  that  was  made — we  are  afraid  to  adopt  his  ways.  It 
took  us  millions  of  years  to  learn  ours.  Wait  a  couple  of 
million  years  and  see  how  you  stand  then.  "Go  to  the 
ant,  thou  sluggard;  consider  her  ways,  and  be  wise." 

The  Horned  Toad. 

KENNETH.  I  placed  a  small  horned  toad  near  your 
door  and  he  played  "'possum"  until  an  ant  clasped  his  soft 
throat.  He  then  scampered  away  with  the  ant  still  holding 
on  and  several  others  running  over  his  back. 

ANT.  He  generally  tries  to  keep  his  throat  hidden  from 
our  jaws. 

KENNETH.  When  out  in  the  mountains  I  saw  the  big 
red  ants  dragging  a  small  horned  toad  into  their  nest. 

CECIL.    Lately  I've  seen  some  little  undigested  cylinders 


144      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

lying  around  your  door.  They  were  three-eighths  of  an 
inch  long  and  one-eighth  across.  They  included  the  skulls 
of  thirty  of  your  ants  arid  three  Carpenter  heads. 

ANT.  You  know  that  South  America  and  Mexico — yes, 
even  some  of  our  states — have  their  ant  eaters. 

CECIL.  I'll  bet  it  is  the  horny  toad  that  comes  around 
here.  You  knoAV,  it  isn't  a  toad  at  all,  but  a  lizard,  and 
small  lizards  eat  insects. 

KENNETH.  Why,  at  the  rate  of  thirty  a  night  it  will 
soon  swallow  your  whole  colony,  if  you  don't  watch  out. 

ANT.    Looks  like  we  might  need  your  help. 

KENNETH.  I  left  a  horny  toad  near  your  door.  The 
ants  passed  its  nose  and  carried  loads  across  its  back  with- 


Ants  Taking  a  Ride  on  a  Horned  Toad. 

out  paying  the  least  attention  to  it.  Neither  did  it  eat 
any  of  your  ants. 

ANT.     Maybe  our  ants  have  something  to  learn  yet. 

KENNETH.  I  opened  Horny's  mouth  and  dropped  one 
of  your  crippled  ants  into  it.  The  toad  got  bit  and  gave  us 
a  lively  show.  He  danced,  shook  his  head,  tried  to  rub  the 
ant  oft'  011  the  ground,  but  finally  swallowed  it. 

FLORENCE.  Aha!  I  told  you  Horny  would  get  you. 
Yesterday  one  wriggled  around  and  made  a  little  pit  to 


THE  HORNED  TOAD  145 

hide  in  just  over  the  dirt  ridge  you  built  around  your  door. 
Then  it  poked  its  nose  over  the  top  at  two  o'clock  and 
waited  for  your  ants  to  come  out  at  three. 

KENNETH.  And  two  feet  from  little  Horny  I  found  one 
undigested  pellet  that  included  thirty  heads  of  your  ants, 
and  another  thirty-five.  These  pellets  were  larger  than  the 
ones  we  found  the  other  day. 

ANT.     What  11  we  do? 

FLORENCE.  Stay  in  the  house  when  he  is  around.  If 
we  find  him  we'll  carry  him  so  far  away  he'll  never  get 
back. 

ALBERT.  Say,  Ant,  you  have  a  great  many  things  to 
do  and  a  great  many  dangers  to  meet,  don't  you?  Your 
work,  trials,  dangers,  accidents  and  so  on  require  that  you 
be  wise  and  keep  busy. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  another  day  is  here  with  another 
bad  report.  I  counted  six'  horny  toad  pits  in  the  soft  dirt 
over  the  ridge  on  your  yard.  But  we  counted  950  ants  on 
the  trail,  so  you  haven't  all  been  swallowed  yet.  If  Horny 
doesn't  get  indigestion  you'll  not  have  to  make  your  house 
any  larger,  will  you? 

DOROTHY.  People  that  are  bothered  with  the  Argen- 
tine ant  ought  to  import  horny  toads,  each  to  eat  240  of 
these  little  ants  at  a  meal. 

ALBERT.  Too  much  bother  for  Horny  to  catch  that 
many  ants.  Anyhow,  that  ant  has  too  much  ammunition 
to  suit  him,  maybe. 

ANT.  Did  you  ever  see  the  horned  toad  catch  any  of 
our  ants? 

DOROTHY.  No,  but  I  think  I  know  how  he  does  it.  He 
gets  on  the  soft  earth  pellets  just  over  the  ridge  of  your 
yard,  wriggles  around  until  a  little  pit  is  made  for  him 
to  lie  in,  places  his  mouth  at  the  rim  of  the  little  pit  he  is 


146       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

in,  and  licks  up  ants  as  they  attempt  to  pass  his  mouth, 
or  as  they  are  hunting  for  the  enemy. 

FLORENCE.  He  digs  a  pit  so  we  can't  see  him,  lets  the 
soft  under  part  of  his  head  rest  on  the  ground  so  you 
can't  bite  it,  and  so  his  mouth  will  be  just  even  with  the 
ground,  ready  to  lick  you  up. 

CECIL.  He  doesn't  care  how  much  the  ants  run  over 
his  hard  back  or  how  much  they  bite  it.  He  is  just  the 
color  of  the  dirt  around  him.  Even  we  can  hardly  see  him 
unless  he  moves. 

FLORENCE.  At  two  different  times  I've  seen  my  cat 
eating  horny  toads. 

CECIL.  I  suppose  that  snakes  and  sea  gulls  eat  young 
ones,  but  the  horns  on  the  back,  sides  and  head  would 
make  pretty  rough  swallowing. 

ALBERT.  Maybe  these  toads  get  on  the  trails,  and  that 
may  account  for  our  ants  changing  their  runways  so  often. 
We've  been  thinking  this  was  done  to  find  a  better  harvest 
field. 

CECIL.  I  think  I  see  now  how  our  ants  so  often  get 
their  legs  and  abdomens  cut  off.  Horny  is  afraid  of  being 
bitten  and  so  licks  and  snaps  at  the  ants,  often  crippling 
them  instead  of  killing  them. 

ALBERT.  The  toad's  jaws  are  very  hard  and  sharp 
along  the  outer  edges,  and  could  easily  cut  an  ant  in  two. 
Our  ants  carry  out  the  crippled  and  sick  nearly  every  day. 
Harvesting  must  be  rather  dangerous  business. 

KENNETH.  Well,  I've  been  making  a  collection  of  those 
pellets  and  counting  the  skulls  in  them,  and  this  is  what  I 
have  to  report: 


THE  HORNED  TOAD  147 

No.  Pellets  No.  Heads 

Date.       Found.  in  Pellets. 

Aug.  29—1 30 

Sept,  19—1 0 

Sept.  23—1.. 30 

Sept.  24—2  (35  and  26) 61 

Sept.  25—2  (  7  and  33) 40 

Sept.  26—1 17 

Sept.  27—2  (16  and  19) 35 


Total— 10 ; . .  .    213 

DOROTHY.  I  like  little  Horny,  but  that's  an  awful 
report  against  him.  Looks  as  if  our  colony  wouldn't  last 
long. 

ANT.  Here  comes  Florence  running.  She's  always 
either  good  or  bad  news. 

FLORENCE.  I  came— I  came  here  at  3 :30,  expecting  to 
see  our  ants  out,  but  not  one  was  in  sight.  But  what  do 
you  think?  I  found  Horny  lying  in  his  little  pit,  waiting 
for  our  ants. 

DOROTHY.  Why,  look!  Here  are  six  of  the  little  pits 
on  the  yard  now. 

FLORENCE.  I  picked  Horny  up;  found  he  was  two 
inches  long ;  thought  he  was  big  enough  to  get  along  with- 
out his  mother,  carried  him  a  hundred  feet  out  the  alley, 
and  lost  him  in  the  brush. 

ALBERT.  I  wish  you  had  carried  him  that  many  miles 
away. 

ANT.  Horny  works  so  quietly  that  he  may  get  a  good 
many  of  us  before  we  know  he  is  around.  Besides,  when 
we  do  find  an  enemy  we  are  not  likely  to  run  but  to 
search  for  it  or  tackle  it,  and  this  would  give  him  a  better 
chance  than  ever,  as  we  can't  get  at  his  soft  throat.  But 
we  are  getting  onto  his  schemes,  I  think. 


148       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.  I  see  that  some  of  the  pits  are  larger  than 
others.  We  better  look  out  for  Horny 's  older  brothers, 

and  maybe  his  mother. 

****** 

FLORENCE.  Good  morning,  Ant.  Listen!  I've  got 
something  to  whisper  to  you.  I  was  here  early  this  morn- 
ing, but  not  one  of  your  ants  was  out.  It  was  a  good 
thing,  for  three  horny  toads  lay  buried  on  your  yard  wait- 
ing for  breakfast.  I  carried  them  four  hundred  feet  away 
and  left  them  near  another  colony  like  yours. 

ANT.     Only  that  far? 

FLORENCE.  I  wrote  "Florence"  on  their  backs  so  I 
can  tell  if  they  return.  They  would  make  fine  pets.  They 
looked  so  nice  I  didn't  want  them  to  starve.  Here  come 
the  boys. 

ANT.  Say,  boys,  Florence  found  three  more  horned 
toads  on  our  yard. 

BOYS.     What  did  you  do  with  them? 

FLORENCE.     None  of  your  business. 

ALBERT.  Well,  you  needn't  get  spunky  about  it,  for 
I've  found  out,  anyway.  I  found  them  down  by  the  side- 
walk colony.  Just  like  a  girl !  She  took  them  away  to 
save  our  colony,  but  left  them  to  eat  another. 

FLORENCE.  How  do  you  know  they  are  the  same 
toads? 

ALBERT.  Because  ''Florence"  is  printed  all  over  their 
backs.  They  are  eating  those  ants,  too,  for  I  counted  forty- 
five  skulls  in  some  pellets  near  the  door. 

FLORENCE.  I'll  move  them  as  soon  as  I  can  find  a 
place  to  take  them. 

ALBERT.  A  lady  that  lives  out  on  the  plains  told  me 
that  she  stakes  out  horned  toads  by  the  ants'  nests.  I 
guess  you  see  why. 


THE  HORNED  TOAD  149 

KENNETH.  I  found  a  horned  toad  buried  in  the  crater 
of  the  Honey  ants.  That  toad  often  hides  in  the  weeds 
near  the  nest.  When  the  ants  come  near  it  they  are  often 
greatly  frightened  and  run  up  the  dead  weeds  and  keep 
quiet. 

CECIL.  Then  they  will  come  down  the  weed  and  run  to 
the  next  one.  And  so  on  until  they  get  home.  At  such 
times  they  remain  quiet  on  a  weed — will  even  let  me  pick 
them  off,  even  if  they  are  the  wildest  ants  around  here. 

KENNETH.  They  act  the  same  way  when  we  come 
around,  too.  I  suppose  little  Horny  darts  his  long,  slender 
tongue  out  and  captures  passing  ants  as  quickly  as  you 
can  wink  an  eye.  As  he  makes  no  noise,  he  must  be  a 
dangerous  enemy. 

CECIL.  One  day  I  stood  Horny  on  his  head  in  the  door 
of  the  ants  and  he  remained  quiet  two  minutes.  Strange,  but 
the  ants  climbed  over  him  or  squeezed  past  his  head  and 
never  got  scared  until  I  removed  him.  I'll  carry  him  away 
and  leave  him  in  a  garden. 

KENNETH.  Ants  are  always  surprising  us— always 
giving  us  a  problem  to  work  out.  I  guess  that's  why  we 
like  to  study  them. 

ALBERT.  '  Strange  we  can  never  really  catch  Horny 
eating  our  ants. 

FLORENCE.  No,  but  George  Aker,  one  of  our  school- 
mates, did.  George  laid  a  small  one  on  a  crater  alive  with 
ants.  The  toad  ran  and  hid,  but  soon  returned  and  licked 
up  many  ants. 

DOROTHY.  Yes.  George  said  its  tongue  seemed  to  be 
two  inches  long  and  moved  so  swiftly  the  eye  could  not 
see  it,  but  you  could  see  that  an  ant  had  disappeared. 

KENNETH.     Once  I  saw  a  real  toad  lick  up  a  trail  of 


IfiO       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

gnats  that  were  passing  up  a  wall.     The  insects  seemed  to 
evaporate   near   the   end   of   the   toad's    nose. 

A  Colony  of  Black  Harvesters  Move. 

ALBERT.  That  colony  down  under  the  sidewalk  moved 
today. 

FLORENCE.  Oh,  tell  us  how  they  looked.  You  know, 
they  are  like  ours. 

ALBERT.  I  counted  1,400  of  them  on  the  trail  at  one 
time — 700  going  each  way.  A  few  were  carrying  seeds, 
some  babies,  others  pupae,  and  a  few  toted  young  white 
ants.  All  but  seventy  walked  along  as  guards,  and  half  a 
dozen  of  these  would  grab  my  finger  whenever  I  placed  it 
on  the  trail.  Their  bite  would  hurt,  too.  So  the  younger, 
sharp-toothed  ants  must  have  been  serving  on  guard  duty. 

DOROTHY.     How  far  did  they  move? 

ALBERT.  About  forty  feet  to  an  abandoned  nest  on  top 
of  a  hardpan  knoll.  Getting  ready  for  the  rainy  season, 
maybe.  The  sidewalk  would  be  a  poor  place  in  rainy 
weather. 

FLORENCE.    Didn't  they  carry  any  eggs  and  queens? 

ALBERT.     I  guess  I  was  too  late  to  see  these. 

CECIL.  Were  there  no  slackers — none  that  refused  to 
help  move? 

.ALBERT.  About  thirty  ants  wouldn't  go.  Some  walked 
off  in  the  wrong  direction.  Later,  I  suppose  these  would 
be  gathered  up  and  taken  by  force,  for  that  seems  to  be 
the  custom  with  ants. 

DOROTHY.     How  many  babies  and  pupae  were  moved? 

ALBERT.  I  couldn't  wait  to  see  or  I'd  be  late  to  school, 
but  I  counted  seventy  babies  and  pupae  011  the  trail  at  a 
time.  I  think  it  took  half  an  hour  for  a  round  trip,  and 


HOW  HARVESTER  ANTS  MOVE  151 

I  happen  to  know  that  it  took  over  two  hours  before  they 
finished  moving. 

DOROTHY.  The  ants  are  not  foolish  enough  to  take 
all  their  young  out  on  the  trail  at  one  time,  and  I  see  why. 
What  if  some  enemy  should  appear  on  the  trail  of  movers? 

CECIL.  You  say  there  were  1,400  ants  on  the  trail  and 
seventy  of  these  carried  babies  and  pupae.  The  seventy 
baby  and  pupa  carriers,  then,  had  1,330  guards,  or  nine- 
teen guards  for  each  baby  and  each  pupa. 

ALBERT.  That's  about  right,  for  only  a  few  carried 
anything  else.  I  think  there  were  about  as  many  ants  not 
on  the  trail  as  there  were  on  it,  for  I  know  something  of 
the  size  of  that  colony. 

FLORENCE.    How  did  a  carrier  hold  a  baby? 

ALBERT.  It  carried  the  baby,  head  in  front,  back 
down,  and  most  of  the  pupae  and  young  white  ants  the 
same  way. 

KENNETH.  In  what  way  did  they  most  remind  you 
of  man? 

ALBERT.  They  had  their  objectors  and  kickers.  About 
half  a  dozen  ants  were  carrying  the  babies  back  to  the  old 
home,  while  seventy  were  carrying  them  to  the  new.  Six 
thought  the  old  home  good  enough  for  the  rainy  season, 
and  they  weren't  afraid  of  toads.  No,  sir;  they  Averen't 
afraid  of  anything. 

KENNETH.    Why  didn't  the  ants  punish  the  kickers? 

ALBERT.  I  don't  know,  unless  it's  because  the  ants  are 
like  men. 

Our  Harvester  Ants  Move. 

FLORENCE.  Ant,  what  makes  you  so  still  1  You  look 
like  you  would  cry  if  you  had  any  tears.  We  have  all 
noticed  that  you  have  been  acting  so  queer  lately.  You 


152       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

don't   even   clean   up   your   yard   any   more.     You've    quit 
harvesting — won't  even  eat  what  I  give  you. 

ANT.     I've  nothing  to  say.     Good  night  to  you  all. 
****** 

ALBERT.  Good  morning,  everybody.  Hear  ye,  hear 
ye !  The  Bean  Gang  will  come  to  order.  A  special  meeting- 
has  been  called.  We  have  very  sad  news  for  you.  I  came 
early  this  morning,  but  only  to  find  that  our  ants  have 
moved,  and  that  all  is  quiet  about  the  old  home.  While 
there  may  have  been  no  deaths,  we  all  feel  as  if  we  had 
lost  some  dear  friend.  As  soon  as  you  can  speak,  I'd  like 
to  have  a  few  remarks. 

FLORENCE.  Maybe,  maybe,  maybe  it's  our  fault !  We 
fed  them  too  much. 

DOROTHY.  Maybe  too  many  got  killed  in  crossing  the 
alley.  Maybe — 

KENNETH.  Maybe  the  mites  got  so  thick  in  the  nest 
the  ants  couldn't  stand  it. 

DOROTHY.     Maybe  they  ran  out  of  grain. 

FLORENCE.     Maybe  we  bothered  them  too  much. 

KENNETH.  Maybe  this  is  just  the  time  for  them  to 
move.  But  this  was  a  good  home  for  the  rainy  season. 

FLORENCE.  Maybe  they  got  word  that  enemy  ants 
were  coming  to  attack  them. 

DOROTHY.     Maybe  some  one  has  poisoned  them. 

FLORENCE.  Maybe  they  have  just  hidden  down  in  the 
nest, 

DOROTHY.     Maybe  the  horny  toads  ate  them. 

CECIL.  I'd  suggest  that  we  don't  worry  too  much,  for 
maybe  we  can  find  the  new  nest.  I  know  of  several  other 
Harvester  colonies  that  have  moved  within  the  last  few 
days. 


SONG  OF  THE  ANTS  AS  THEY  MOVE    153 

FLORENCE.  Boys,  suppose  you  dig  up  the  old  nest  so 
we  can  see  the  rooms  and  galleries. 

ALBERT.  Here  is  a  pick  and  shovel  for  us  and  a  pencil 
for  Florence.  She  must  make  a  sketch  of  the  nest. 

FLORENCE.  Why,  here's  a  piece  of  paper  lying  on  the 
nest — with  verses  on  it.  Let's  read  them. 

SONG  OF  THE  ANTS  AS  THEY  MOVE. 
October  1. 

As  the  sun  hangs  low  o'er  the  ocean  so  grand, 

And  the  breeze  is  lulled  on  the  shore, 
We  must  gather  together  our  children  and  queens, 

For  this  home — we  shall  know  it  no  more. 

Wherever  we  go  and  whatever  befall; 

However  the  world  turns  round; 
Whoever  may  come  and  whoever  may  go, 

To  you  we  forever  are  bound. 

You  say  we  are  brave,  and  you  say  that  we  work ; 

You  say  we  are  honest  and  true; 
You  say  we  are  clean — that  we  care  for  our  young — 

So  our  mem'ry  shall  linger  with  you. 

DOROTHY.     Let's  try  it  to  the  tune  of  Nellie  Gray. 

****** 

FLORENCE.  Well,  I've  finished  drawing  the  ants'  nest. 
Come  and  look  at  it.  Cecil  will  have  to  explain  about  the 
nest. 

ALBERT.  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  permit  me  to  intro- 
duce Professor  Cecil,  who  will  now  give  an  illustrated  lec- 
ture on  "The  Plans  of  a  Black  Harvester  Nest." 


154       ANTS  ANT)  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL. 

A,  B,  C,  G  and  II  were  built  in  earth  cracks  that  had 
become  filled  with  gravel  and  dirt.  Each  was  a  tall 
apartment,  made  up  of  a  number  of  small  chambers, 
galleries  and  pillars. 

D  and  E  looked  like  grain  chutes. 

J  and  F  each  had  a  wooden  ceiling  a  few  inches  long 


Diagram    of   Ants'    Nest    Drawn    by   J.    Dean    Simkins. 

The  Plans  of  a  Black  Harvester  Nest. 

and  made  level  by  gnawing  off  the  decayed  under  side 
of  a  dead  root  bulb  of  a  greasewood  or  other  shrub  that 
had  grown  there.  The  gnawing  exposed  four  large  year 
growths  of  the  wood  on  one  of  the  bulbs. 

F,   J   and   K   together   made    a   beautiful,   large,   low- 
ceiling  reception  room  for  a  thousand  ants. 
N   was   a   small   room   a   foot   below   the   surface,    damp 
and  cool. 


PLANS  OF  BLACK  HARVESTER  NEST          155 

1  and  8  were  small  rooms.  Those  near  the  surface 
were  used  as  sun  parlors,  or  warm  rooms,  for  eggs  and 
babies  in  daytime.  At  night,  no  doubt,  the  small,  warm 
lower  rooms  were  used  for  the  same  purpose. 

2.  A  network  of  hallways  extending  down  to  damp 
adobe.     (A  shallow  depression  under  a  business  room  in 
this  city  held  water  the  year  round.) 

3.  Hallway  connecting  M  and  N. 

4.  Probably    an    airshaft    connecting    with    an    open 
earth  crack. 

5.  A  well,  maybe. 

6.  Pillars  between  J  and  K  and  between  L  and  M  to 
support  the  large  roofs. 

7.  Entrance  to  door  at  surface. 

8.  Explained   above   with   "1." 

9.  A  ridge  around  the  door  made  by  the  gallon  of 
(packed)  dirt  carried  out  of  the  nest  while  mining  the 
home. 

10.  The  rubbish  pile,  or  kitchen  midden,  made  largely 
of  chaff,  but  contained  a  few  skeletons. 

Many  of  the  rooms  were  ventilated,  either  by  connec- 
tion with  earth  cracks  below  or  with  the  surface.  The 
ceilings  of  the  large  rooms  were  supported  by  pillars 
near  the  middle.  Some  of  the  shafts  may  have  been 
wells.  (The  bean  patch  was  irrigated.) 
FLORENCE.  In  what  shape  did  the  ants  leave  the 

house?     Did  they  sweep  out  before  they  moved? 

CECIL.     Don't  bother  the  speaker.     You  might  say  the 

house   was   perfectly   clean.     Hardly   a   clod,    or   seed,   or 

skeleton  remained,  and  there  was  no  loose  dirt  anywhere. 

The  ants  had  taken  their  grain  with  them. 

FLORENCE.     And   their   guests.     Don't   forget    to    tell 

about   them. 


156       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.  They  left  no  guests  except  a  hundred  small 
white  mites  that  lived  in  tiny  hallways  that  pierced  a  two- 
inch  pillar  located  between  G  and  K.  I  suppose  these 
white  mites  were  the  ants'  ghosts. 

KENNETH.  This  nest  was  located  in  a  hardpan  knoll 
at  the  crossing  of  two  earth  cracks  that  had  become  filled 
with  gravel  and  dirt. 

CECIL.  The  hardpan  below  was  yet  damp  enough  to 
be  pressed  into  balls,  although  there  has  been  no  rain  to 
speak  of  since  last  spring. 


Photograph  of  One  of  the  Rooms  Showing  Hardened  Walls. 
A  piece  is  broken  out  on  one  side. 

ALBERT.  How  is  it  your  diagram  figures  only  about 
a  half  gallon  of  dirt  removed,  and  yet  we  know  there  was 
a  gallon? 

FLORENCE.  I  suppose  I  omitted  some  of  the  apart- 
ments and  maybe  you  didn't  allow  enough  for  hallways. 
You  know  this  was  largely  hardpan,  and  I  don't  suppose 
the  dirt  was  as  solidly  packed  in  your  bucket  as  it  was 
before  it  was  mined. 


PLANS  OF  BLACK  HARVESTER  NEST          157 

CECIL.  The  ants  seem  to  treat  the  walls  of  their  rooms 
to  make  them  harder  than  the  dirt  in  which  they  are  built, 
as  shown  in  the  picture.  The  room  is  lying  in  a  wheel- 
barrow. 

KENNETH.     No   especial  care  was   taken  in  removing 

the  dirt  from  the  outside  of  the  wall. 

****** 

FLORENCE.  I  declare  I  feel  lonesome.  I  wish  I  could 
find  our  ants'  new  nest. 

DOROTHY.     So  do  I. 

CECIL.  We've  hunted  several  days  and  might  as  well 
give  up. 

KENNETH.  I  feel  like  an  orphan  or  something.  I've 
nothing  to  like. 

FLORENCE.  Never  give  up.  Run  here,  all  of  you.  I've 
found  the  nest. 

ALBERT.  Here,  form  in  a  circle.  Now,  all  together: 
Hip,  hip,  hip,  hurrah! 

CECIL.  The  new  nest  is  forty-five  feet  from  the  old  one, 
and  is  by  the  telephone  pole  across  the  alley.  It's  been 
used  before,  but  isn't  much  of  a  home.  It's  too  low  for  the 
rainy  season.  They'll  just  stay  here  until  they  can  find 
a  better  place. 


158       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  X. 

October  18  to  November  15. 
The  New  Home,    Why  Ants  Move. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  Ant,  how  do  you  like  your  new 
home? 

ANT.     I  don't  know  yet. 

ALBERT.  There's  plenty  of  wild  oats  near  here,  and  I 
guess  you  came  for  that.  You  won't  have  to  cross  the  alley 
now,  nor  go  so  far  to  the  harvest  field.  But  I  think  you'll 
find  that  too  many  other  animals  live  in  or  around  that 
pole  to  suit  you. 

CECIL.  I  guess  ants  are  like  men.  Sometimes  they  have 
to  use  any  kind  of  a  house  until  they  can  find  a  better  one 
or  make  one. 

KENNETH.  One  of  your  ants  had  the  palsy  today,  for 
it  shivered  and  jerked  for  fifteen  minutes.  All  this  time 
fifteen  of  your  ants  were  examining  it  all  over  with  their 
feelers. 

ANT.  Of  course  we  might  have  nervous  trouble  at  such 
a  time  as  this.  Did  you  ever  move?  You  see,  you  don't 
even  know  why  we  moved  yet.  Watch  out  the  next  time 
we  move  and  maybe  you'll  learn  something  you  don't 
know. 

KENNETH.  When  that  ant  quit  jerking,  it  stood  up- 
right and  then  ran  its  two  hind  legs  over  a  straw,  letting 
its  body  swing  below  for  a  few  minutes.  A  regular 
gymnastic  stunt.  I  then  placed  the  ant  in  my  hand  and 


THE  NEW  HOME.     WHY  ANTS  MOVE          159 

found  it  staggered  and  didn't  know  anything.  I  looked 
further  and  found  one  feeler  gone. 

ANT.  If  it  had  a  stroke  of  some  kind  and  was  danger- 
ous our  ants  may  have  removed  a  feeler  to  make  the  sick 
ant  harmless.  But  how  do  you  know  this  crippled  ant 
didn't  lose  its  feeler  in  a  battle  that  caused  us  to  move? 

CECIL.  Suppose  you  name  all  the  reasons  you  might 
have  for  moving. 

ANT.  We  might  move  on  account  of  enemies,  visitors, 
flood,  drouth,  cold,  heat,  bean  patch,  or  scarcity  of  food. 
We  might  move  to  high  ground  for  the  rainy  season. 
Some  ants  may  send  off  a  section  of  their  family  to  start 
a  new  colony.  I  suppose  we  move  for  about  the  same 
reasons  you  do. 

CECIL.  After  the  rainy  season  is  over,  many  insects 
die  of  old  age,  starve,  hibernate,  or  change  their  forms. 
Some  move  to  watered  lawns,  while  others  live  in  earth 
cracks  or  otherwise  hide  in  daytime. 

ALBERT.  I  notice  that  when  man  moves,  some  of  his 
ant  families  do  also.  Fifty  colonies  live  in  or  near  this 
watered  lawn,  but  not  one  in  the  dry  bean  patch. 

CECIL.  Yes,  but  that  is  because  there  are  no  weed 
seeds  in  it  now. 

About  Ants'  Nests. 

KENNETH.  Some  Harvester  doors  are  long  slits.  These 
follow  old  earth  cracks  or  are  caved-in  subways  or  sun 
parlors.  I  looked  in  a  large  door  and  found  the  ants  were 
closing  the  smaller  inner  doors  with  a  pile  of  pebbles 
collected  for  that  purpose.  The  nest  was  over  a  year  old. 

CECIL.  I  found  the  funniest  crater  eighteen  miles  east 
of  San  Diego.  It  was  three  inches  high  and  only  four 


160      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

inches  across  the  base,  and  the  steep  inner  cone  was  nicely 
paved  with  pebbles.  I  dug  up  the  nest  but  found  no  ants. 

ALBERT.  I've  seen  the  Garden  ants  do  that.  They 
generally  keep  many  small  grains  of  rock  on  the  inner 
slope. 

CECIL.  Our  ants  closed  their  doors  up  tight  today- 
even  used  fine  dirt.  Two  Acrobats  that  tried  to  break  in 
failed.  Burglars,  as  we  have  witnesses  many  times. 

DOROTHY.  Last  evening  I  sprinkled  your  yard  until 
your  soft  earth  pellets  crumbled  and  until  the  earth  was 
wet  a  quarter  of  an  inch  deep.  Your  ants  enjoyed  the  mist. 
The  water  collected  on  them  in  little  balls. 

ANT.  When  we  have  time  we  keep  our  bodies  so  well 
oiled  and  burnished  that  mist,  fog  or  dew  will  not  wet  us. 

DOROTHY.  We  have  no  big  ant  mounds,  like  those  in 
the  foothills. 

KENNETH.  Livingstone  found  ant  hills  twenty  feet 
high  in  Africa. 

CECIL.  Yes,  and  some  ants  in  this  country  remove  dirt 
equal  to  464  Pyramids  of  Egypt,  when  you  compare  ants 
with  men  in  size. 

ALBERT.  One  writer  says  that  a  colony  in  the  Garden 
of  the  Gods  removed  360  cubic  feet  of  earth  and  went  down 
in  the  ground  eight  feet.  This  would  equal  1,408  feet  in 
depth  for  man. 

KENNETH.  A  man  found  that  ants  tunnel  under  small 
streams,  too.  A  tunnel  650  feet  long  was  found  in  Texas, 
and  the  door  was  450  feet  from  the  nest. 

CECIL.  They  say  some  ants  build  towns — several  colo- 
nies near  each  other.  The  population  on  a  few  acres  may 
equal  that  of  China— 400,000,000.  In  times  of  danger  and 
when  accidents  occur  to  a  nest,  the  colonies  help  each  other. 
A  single  colony  has  been  known  to  have  200  branches.  An- 


SUN-PARLORS  161 

other  town  had  over  1,600  nests  on  eighteen  square  yards, 
or  was  this  a  single  colony? 

FLORENCE.    I  wonder  how  they  could  make  a  living. 

ALBERT.  I've  been  waiting  to  see  how  an  ant  makes 
an  earth  pellet  out  of  damp  clay — the  kind  of  earth  balls 
the  ants  build  their  craters  with.  Well,  today  I  saw  one 
work  some  mud  back  between  the  muscles  of  her  forelegs 
with  her  jaws  and  front  feet.  She  pressed  it  into  a  ball 
with  her  jaws  between  the  muscles  of  her  forelegs.  When 
the  ball  was  big  enough,  she  carried  it  away. 

Sun-Parlors. 

CECIL.  I  pushed  my  pencil  on  the  ground  and  it  went 
into  one  of  your  sun-parlors.  The  roof  was  only  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  thick. 

KENNETH.  One  day  I  did  the  same  thing,  and  six  ants 
rushed  out  the  opening  into  the  hot  sun,  but  they  couldn't 
stand  it  long. 

ANT.  You  are  mistaken.  You  just  opened  up  an  old 
door  that  we  had  closed  with  clods — a  ventilator.  Of 
course,  we  could  escape  through  it  also,  with  our  babies 
and  grain,  if  necessary. 

KENNETH.  I  believe  I  could  crowd  your  whole  colony 
into  a  little  box  an  inch  long,  high  and  wide.  What  do 
you  make  such  a  big  house  for? 

ANT.     Isn't  your  house  larger  than  your  family? 

KENNETH.  WeU,  I've  repaired  the  sun-parlor  I  caved 
in  by  placing  a  glass  roof  on  it.  I  covered  it  with  dirt  to 
keep  the  violet  rays  of  the  sun  out  so  you  can  keep  your 
babies  and  eggs  in  it.  I  can  wipe  the  dirt  off  when  I  want 
to  see  what  you  are  doing. 

ANT.     Thank  you. 

KENNETH.     I  see  you  have  cleaned  out  the  room  and 


1(12   ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

made  it  look  all  spick  and  span.  Once,  when  I  forgot  to 
put  the  dirt  back  on  the  glass  roof,  the  ants  did  it  for  me 
and,  at  the  same  time,  they  plastered  the  ceiling  with  dirt 
and  sticks  to  keep  the  sun  out. 

FLORENCE.    What  do  the  ants  keep  in  the  parlor? 

KENNETH.  Through  the  heat  of  the  day  they  keep  the 
room  full  of  babies  and  pupae,  but  I  haven't  seen  any  eggs. 
They  are  very  small,  you  know. 

DOROTHY.     Anything  funny  happen? 

KENNETH.  Yes.  One  day  an  ant  was  standing  on 
the  ceiling  holding  a  pupa  up  against  the  glass.  I  sur- 
prised her  and  she  let  go  and  both  fell  through  the  hole 
in  the  floor. 

DOROTHY.     What  else? 

KENNETH.  At  another  time  an  ant  knocked  a  pupa 
off  a  shelf  and  it  fell  down  the  stairway  to  the  depths 
below. 

ANT.  That  wouldn't  hurt  it.  Did  you  notice  that  we 
removed  the  plaster  from  the  ceiling  after  you  replaced 
the  dirt  on  the  glass  roof? 

KENNETH.  Yes.  I  also  noticed  that  I  made  the  room 
too  close  when  I  packed  wet  clay  around  the  edges  of  the 
glass  because  the  ants  opened  up  a  ventilating  shaft  at  one 
side  and  filled  the  hole  up  with  clods  and  gravel. 

CECIL.  Maybe  that  was  for  a  door  in  case  they  were 
attacked  from  below  and  had  to  escape  with  eggs  and 
babies. 

KENNETH.  You  see  our  ants  are  masons,  for  they 
plastered  their  glass  ceiling.  They  have  now  enlarged  that 
sun-parlor  on  one  side  and  built  a  wall  of  earth  pellets 
straight  up  on  the  opposite  side,  and  they  can  harden  the 
walls  of  a  room  to  keep  it  from  crumbling,  as  we  know. 

CECIL.     When  do  the  ants  use  the  parlor? 


SUN-PARLOR  OF  BLACK  HARVESTER  ANT     163 

KENNETH.  They  take  their  babies  up  into  the  room 
about  eight  in  the  morning  and  lay  them  down,  or  pile 
them  up,  or  hold  them  in  their  jaws.  In  the  evening  they 
take  them  down  below. 

CECIL.     I  see. 

KENNETH.  They  move  the  babies  around  a  good  deal, 
keep  feeling  them,  often  stand  on  a  pile  of  them.  Some 
stand  on  the  glass  ceiling  whether  holding  babies  or  not. 

CECIL.  What  effect  does  removing  the  dirt  covering 
have? 

KENNETH.  Even  though  I  scrape  but  a  little  dirt  off 
the  roof  very  quietly,  the  ants  soon  scurry  out  of  the  room 
with  their  babies.  Ants  can't  stand  the  violet  rays  of  the 


Sun-Parlor  of  Black  Harvester  Ant. 

sun  very  well.  Maybe  they  feel  me  or  hear  me  through 
the  earth,  also. 

FLORENCE.  I  saw  you  making  our  ants  a  new  sun- 
parlor  today  and  have  drawn  a  picture  of  it. 

KENNETH.  Yes,  I've  made  them  several  sun-parlors. 
You  know  I  removed  the  dirt  roof  and  put  a  glass  one 
on  some  weeks  ago.  Afterwards  I  exchanged  the  glass 
one  for  a  tin  one.  Well,  the  other  day  I  raised  the  walls 
one  story  and  put  a  tin  roof  a  half  inch  above  the  glass 
one.  The  ants  made  the  lower  sun  room  and  I  made  the 
upper. 

DOROTHY.  How  do  the  ants  like  your  new  upper 
story? 


164      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

KENNETH.  I  guess  it's  all  0.  K.  At  least  fifty  ants 
were  in  it  today,  but  there  wasn't  a  single  ant  in  the  lower 
room. 

The  Garden  Ant. 

ALBERT.  One  of  you  spoke  of  a  town  of  ant  colonies. 
Why,  I  think  this  little  Garden  ant  builds  towns  around 
here.  Right  now  there  are  sixteen  colonies  of  this  ant 
strung  along  this  alley,  all  in  or  near  a  line  fifty-eight  feet 
long.  I've  seen  them  swarm  as  early  as  February.  Just 
the  larger  colonies  swarmed.  Runners  passed  from  nest 


if'' 


GAEDEN  ANT,  City. 

to  nest.  The  ground  around  the  swarming  colonies  was 
covered  with  excited  guards. 

FLORENCE.  I  saw  them.  When  the  hour  came  for 
flight  the  excitement  amounted  to  almost  a  panic.  The 
kings  and  queens  were  urged  in  every  way  to  make  the 
venture. 

KENNETH.  The  queens  were  large,  but  there  were 
only  one-tenth  as  many  of  them  as  kings.  It  took  an  hour 
to  get  the  royalty  off.  After  they  shook  out  their  wings 
and  pumped  up  their  bodies  they  were  soon  out  of  sight. 

FLORENCE.  After  they  were  gone  the  workers  went 
into  the  house.  This  happened  on  a  warm,  quiet  day. 

KENNETH.  Some  of  the  royalty  were  so  abused  they 
couldn't  fly,  and  I  pitied  them.  Those  that  tried  to  run 


THE  GARDEN  ANT  165 

away  met  guards  on  every  road.  Some  climbed  weeds  to 
escape  their  tormentors. 

ALBERT.  A  month  later  the  largest  colony  swarmed 
again. 

KENNETH.  After  the  next  rain  the  city  was  rebuilt, 
but  the  colonies  were  fewer  and  several  had  changed  lo- 
cations. 

CECIL.  This  is  the  most  common  ant  in  southern 
California.  Draw  an  east-west  line  across  the  United 
States  through  Illinois  or  another  through  Argentina, 
South  America.  Much  of  the  territory  between  these  lines 
is  inhabited  by  these  ants.  Anybody  can  find  their  little 
craters  on  hard,  bare  ground  around  the  house  of  man, 
along  the  walks,  and  often  elsewhere.  One-third  of  these 
in  this  alley  are  in  a  wagon  track. 

ALBERT.  Once  I  saw  a  small  boy  brush  the  crater  of  a 
Garden  ant  colony  with  a  broom,  mixing  up  ants  and  dirt. 
The  ants  rebuilt  nearby,  but  a  playful  kitten  repeated  the 
broom  act  with  its  paws. 

KENNETH.  Yes.  That  colony  built  on  top  of  a  pile  of 
dirt  on  which  animals  and  children  like  to  play.  Unlucky 
ants. 

CECIL.  And  that  wasn't  all.  A  colony  of  Acrobats 
visited  them  for  several  nights.  The  visitors  became  such 
a  nuisance  that  the  other  ants  rebuilt  six  inches  away. 
Then  the  Acrobats  used  the  old  nest  as  an  operating  sta- 
tion or  as  a  resort.  After  the  rebuilding  was  repeated 
several  times,  the  Garden  ants  could  not  be  found,  or  the 
Acrobats  either. 

ALBERT.  The  visitors  didn't  bother  the  others  except 
at  night  time.  So  one  day  the  Garden  ants  thought  they 
would  fool  the  loafers.  They  carried  the  dirt  of  their  own 


166       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

crater  back  to  the  door  and  dropped  it  down  the  stairway, 
as  if  trying  to  fill  the  room  with  it. 

FLORENCE.  Yes,  and  in  doing  so  they  showed  us  one' 
way  that  umbrella-shaped  craters  are  made.  Figures  A, 
B  and  C  show  the  different  shapes  the  crater  took  as  it 


TOADSTOOL  OR  UMBRELLA 
SHAPE 


Craters  of  Garden  Ants. 


THE  GARDEN  ANT 


167 


168       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

was  being  carried  away.  Finally  the  disk  was  all  gone 
except  the  broad  base. 

ALBERT.  One  year,  after  a  rain,  the  ants  were  mining. 
They  dumped  the  wet  dirt  over  the  top.  It  stuck  and 
formed  the  outer  eaves.  The  inner  eaves  are  made  by  the 
undermining,  as  you  say. 

FLORENCE.  But  why  do  the  Acrobats  dump  their 
craters  back  into  the  house  sometimes? 

CECIL.  They  do  this  if  the  Acrobats  have  gotten  into 
the  house.  The  Garden  ants  try  to  keep  the  enemy  out 
by  building  pyramids  of  stone  and  earth  over  the  doors, 
but  if  they  fail  they  dump  the  crater  back  into  the  nest. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  a  dozen  Garden  ants  that  were 
greatly  excited.  Half  of  them  were  dumping  the  crater 
back  into  the  house  and  the  other  half  were  carrying  the 
dirt  out.  You  saw  them. 

CECIL.  Whenever  they  would  get  too  much  of  the  dirt 
out  of  the  door  I  could  see  the  gun  of  an  Acrobat  pointing 
right  at  the  Garden  ants.  They  would  get  shot,  too,  for 
they  would  act  crazy  for  a  time. 

ALBERT.  Then  we  dug  up  the  nest  and  found  six 
Acrobats  inside,  but  nothing  else.  There  was  one  tunnel 
two  inches  long  and  one  three.  The  enemy  ants  were  at 
the  ends  of  the  tunnels.  As  the  ants  rebuilt  at  once  in 
the  same  place,  there  must  have  been  a  third  tunnel  in 
which  they  were  hidden. 

CECIL.  So,  when  you  see  the  Garden  ants  dumping 
their  crater  back  into  their  stairway  in  an  excited  manner, 
it  is  a  safe  guess  that  the  Acrobats  have  broken  into  the 
house. 

FLORENCE.  I  remember  that  in  dry  weather  their 
craters  are  all  alike,  and  in  wet  weather  they  often  differ. 

CECIL.   They  just  happen  to  be  different  in  wet  weather. 


THE  GARDEN  ANT  169 

One  year  in  October,  after  the  first  rain  of  the  season,  I 
found  several  different  shapes.  One  was  a  perfect  cone 
with  a  small  door  at  the  top;  one  was  a  round  chimney, 
but  most  of  them  were  the  shape  of  a  toadstool  with  one 
side  removed. 

ALBERT.  Yes.  When  they  dump  the  dirt  over  the  top 
it  rolls  down  or  is  tramped  down,  if  dry,  but  sticks  and 
makes  an  over-jetting  roof  if  wet. 

CECIL.  Some  of  these  wet  craters  are  an  inch  or  more 
high.  I've  seen  these  ants  work  in  a  drizzle  and  build  such 
a  crater  in  twenty-four  hours.  The  royalty  often  walk 
over  the  crater  at  such  times. 

ALBERT.  As  such  craters  are  so  steep  on  the  inside 
the  ants  can't  have  a  pile  of  stone  by  the  door,  they  fill  up 
the  inside  of  the  crater  until  the  slope  is  more  gentle. 

CECIL.  One  year,  after  the  first  rain,  I  counted  twenty- 
six  nests  along  a  footpath,  but  only  one  right  in  it.  At  the 
same  time,  and  on  the  same  lot,  I  counted  forty  little 
mounds  thrown  up  by  the  queens  of  this  ant  for  new 
homes.  They  didn't  mine  an  inch  deep.  They  chose  a  time 
when  mining  was  easy. 

KENNETH.  One  day  they  tried  another  scheme  against 
the  unwelcome  Acrobats.  They  plugged  up  the  door  tight, 
opened  another  a  half  inch  away,  built  a  solid  pyramid  of 
stones  and  dirt  over  the  new  door,  and  then  plugged  up 
the  final  entrance. 

CECIL.  Yes,  and  at  night  time  the  Acrobats  came  as 
usual,  but  couldn't  get  the  old  door  open.  They  all  went 
away  but  four,  and  these  worked  for  three  hours,  and  I 
don't  know  how  much  longer,  tunneling  under  the  pyramid 
of  stones,  but  failed  to  open  the  new  door. 

DOROTHY.     I'd  like  to  see  the  Acrobats  get  the  good 


J70      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

thrashing  they  deserve.     They  even  search  the  grounds  of 
the  Honey  ant, 

CECIL.  Most  of  the  Garden  ants  around  here  are  the 
dark  variety,  but  a  few  colonies  are  the  variety  called 
bicolor — have  two  colors — black  abdomen,  and  the  rest  of 
the  body  brick-red.  (Dorymyrmex  pyramicus,  the  dark 
variety.  Common  here.  Dorymyrmex  pyramicus  var.  bi- 
color, has  dark  abdomen,  but  other  parts  reddish). 

DOROTHY.  How  can  you  tell  this  common  ant  from 
others  around  here? 

CECIL.  It  has  a  pyramid  or  low  cone  on  its  thorax— 
not  on  its  pedicel.  It  has  one  hump,  or  scale,  on  its  pedicel. 

DOROTHY.  The  other  Garden  ant  (Tapinoma  sessile) 
looks  like  it,  but  lias  no  pyramid  on  its  back  and  the 
hump,  or  scale,  011  its  pedicel  lies  so  close  to  the  abdomen 
(gaster)  that  you  can  hardly  find  it. 

KENNETH.  The  Garden  ants  often  mine  their  homes 
right  on  our  ants'  yard,  but  they  don't  enter  the  nest  of 
our  ants  half  as  often  as  the  Acrobats  do — in  fact,  hardly 
at  all.  Our  ant  yard  is  bare  and  sunny,  and  then  the  ants 
waste  a  good  deal  of  food  for  the  Garden  ants  to  eat. 
Watch  them  search  the  premises  of  our  ants. 

CECIL.  A  strong  colony  that  had  lived  in  the  same 
nest  a  year,  slowly  carried  pupae  to  another  nest  forty 
feet  away,  and  this  was  in  February.  Only  a  part  of  the 
colony  moved.  They  often  carry  their  young  from  one 
nest  to  another.  Maybe  this  is  to  save  them  from  the 
Acrobats. 

DOROTHY.  A  worker  sticks  a  half  dozen  babies  to- 
gether and  carries  them  all  at  once. 

FLORENCE.  Generally  it  takes  several  days  to  remove1 
the  babies  from  one  nest  to  another — often  forty  feet  away. 
Only  a  few  are  allowed  011  the  trail  at  the  same  time.  The 


THE  FIRE  ANT  171 

colony  seems  to  live,  in  both  houses,  and  ants  travel  from 
one  to  the  other. 

DOROTHY.  Sometimes  several  houses  will  be  in  the 
same  circuit. 

CECIL.  This  ant  eats  dead  insects  and  the  rejects  of 
other  ants.  Occasionally  they  drag  home  a  few  star  thistle 
seed. 

DOROTHY.  Their  kings  are  the  same  size  as  their 
workers,  but  their  queens  are  larger. 

CECIL.  When  the  Garden  ants  are  crushed  they  give 
off  an  odor  that  is  pleasant  to  some  people.  This  is  called 
Tapinoma  odor,  because  it  smells  like  the  odor  of  the  other 
Garden  ant  by  that  name.  It  is  poisonous  to  its  enemies. 
The  poison  of  most  ants  is  not  an  acid. 

ALBERT.  Ants  that  don't  sting  may  be  able  to  eject 
more  poison  than  those  that  have  stings.  Some  can  spray 
it  a  distance  of  two  inches. 

The  Fire  Ant. 

DOROTHY.  The  Fire  ant  around  here  is  small— only  a 
little  larger  than  the  Garden  ant.  It  is  rather  scarce,  too. 

CECIL.  This  morning  five  hundred  Fire  ants  (Solenop- 
sis  geminata  Fabr.  subsp.  maniosa  Wheeler)  lay  stiff  on  the 
cement  walk  by  our  house.  I  suppose  they  started  across 
last  night,  but  when  they  struck  the  cold  cement  they  got 
so  stiff  they  couldn't  walk. 

KENNETH.    They  must  have  been  forced  to  leave  home. 

CECIL.  The  sunshine  soon  limbered  them  up.  Several 
had  been  stepped  on  by  persons  passing  by.  About  half 
a  dozen  had  babies  with  them. 

FLORENCE.    And  now  they'll  have  the  grippe. 

CECIL.  I  thought  I  could  feel  the  sting  when  I  held  a 
few  of  them  to  the  back  of  my  hand. 


172       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

Dwarfs.    Scale  Showing  Sizes  of  Ants. 

DOROTHY.  Sometimes  small  ants  make  raids  on  our 
cupboard. 

ANT.     Same  here. 

DOROTHY.     Why  don't  you  catch  them? 

ANT.     Why  don't  you? 

CECIL.  Strange  that  such  small  ants  can  capture  a 
large  one. 

ANT.  The  small  ones  are  likely  to  have  poison  or  stings, 
and  to  be  good  fighters.  But  four  or  five  may  give  up 
their  lives  to  capture  one  large  one. 

KENNETH.  You  say  that  most  colonies  have  two  main 
sizes  of  ants. 

ANT.  Yes.  The  large  ones  are  called  Major  Workers 
and  the  small  ones  Minor  Workers.  Minims  are  still 
smaller.  There  may  be  a  few  of  other  sizes. 

KENNETH.  I  buried  some  walnut  kernel  near  the  tele- 
phone pole  hoping  to  catch  some  stray  ants.  Afterwards 
I  found  500  tiny  ants  eating  the  nut,  They  were  less  than 
one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  long. 

CECIL.  This  ant  (Solenopsis  texana)  is  light  yellow; 
has  two  humps  on  its  pedicel,  and  its  eyes  are  mere  dots 
under  the  glass.  It  lives  underground,  steals  babies 
through  its  small  galleries;  will  also  eat  seeds;  may  see 
light,  and  has  a  queen  a  thousand  times  as  large  as  a 
worker.  We  might  call  this  the  Dwarf  ant. 

ALBERT.  I  wonder  if  it  is  the  ant  that  is  making  its 
craters  only  as  big  as  a  nickel. 

KENNETH.  Those  at  the  pole  dumped  quite  a  pile  of 
nut  flour  out  of  their  mouth  pouches,  and  it  was'  as  fine  as 
dust.  They  left  in  two  weeks. 

FLORENCE.     I've   tried  to   draw   a   scale   showing   the 


SCALE  SHOWING  SIZES  OF  ANTS  173 

sizes  of  ants  around  here.  I  did  not  include  the  Tapinoma 
Garden  ant  because  it's  about  the  size  of  the  Garden  ant 
mentioned.  The  Fire  ant  around  here  is  slightly  larger 
than  the  Garden  ant — about  the  length  of  Longlegs. 

Length  of  Ants. 

The  length  of  the  Black  Harvester  ant,  the  one  observed, 
and  also  of  others  that  lived  near  by: 


1.  Carpenter.     Camponotus   maculatus   subsp. 

vicinus,  var.  luteangulus  Wheeler. 

2.  Black  Harvester.     Veramessor  andrei. 

Our   ant. 

3.  "Bobber  Ant."     Eciton  opacithorax. 

4.  Acrobat.     Cremastogaster  lineolata  subsp. 

coarctata. 

5.  Garden  Ant.     Dorymyrmex  pyramicus. 

6.  Very    small    yellow    ant.      Solenopsis    tex- 

ana  (?). 


There   is   also   another  Garden   Ant   the   size   of   No.   5,   Tapinoma 
sessile. 

No.  1—1-2  inch.  No.  3—3-16  inch.       No.  5—1-  8  inch. 

No.  2—1-4  inch.  No.  4—5-32  inch.       No.  6—1-16  inch. 


174      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OP  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  XL 

November  15  to  January  12. 

The  Robber  Ants  Make  Their  First  Attack  on  Ours. 

DOROTHY.  I  saw  a  strange  ant,  scout  maybe,  around 
your  door.  Better  look  out. 

ANT.  We  are  expecting  trouble.  Have  you  noticed 
that  we've  opened  up  a  new  door  five  inches  from  the  old 
'one? 

FLORENCE.  And  you've  not  been  working  for  several 
days  and  go  moseying  around  in  a  dazed  sort  of  way,  as  if 
you're  afraid  you'll  step  on  something. 

ALBERT.     I  think  we  better  come  back  in  the  morning 

to  see  what's  happening. 

*     *     #     *     #     # 

KENNETH.  Hello!  You're  here  early.  All  come  and 
we'll  peek  into  the  sun-parlor.  Why,  that's  funny!  The 
room  is  crowded  with  fifty  ants  smaller  than  ours.  See 
them  hiking  down  stairs.  None  of  ours  are  out. 

ALBERT.  I  believe  they  have  moved  or  something, 
or  those  fifty  strangers  wouldn't  have  gone  down  into  the 
nest.  Let's  come  back  tomorrow  morning. 

CECIL.     All  right. 

****** 

KENNETH.  Morning,  all.  Now,  watch  while  I  wipe 
the  dirt  off  the  glass  roof  again.  The  same  fifty  strange 
ants  are  in  the  parlor.  Well,  what  do  you  think  of  that? 

DOROTHY.  Yes,  and  here  a  dozen  of  our  ants  are 
hiding  under  some  salt  grass. 


THE  ROBBER  ANTS  175 

KENNETH.  I've  caught  one  of  the  fifty,  and  it's  an 
Acrobat,  but  that  ant  never  drove  ours  away.  Some  other 
ant  has  done  it.  Why,  ours  have  been  in  this  nest  only  six 
weeks.  We  didn't  think  they  would  live  here  long.  Still, 
I  don't  believe  they  left  of  their  own  accord. 

CECIL.  The  Acrobats  like  to  live  near  the  surface.  They 
surely  did  enjoy  that  sun-parlor.  They  have  small  colonies 
and  are  not  supposed  to  eat  nuts  or  grain. 

DOROTHY.  Look  here !  Sixteen  of  ours  are  passing 
by,  five  feet  away,  and  two  of  them  are  being  carried  by 
others.  They  have  no  home  ready  and  don't  know  what 
to  do.  I'm  sorry  we  dug  up  their  old  one,  for  they  could 
go  back  to  it  now  if  we  hadn't. 

FLORENCE.  If  our  ants  had  been  smart  they  would 
have  had  another  nest  ready.  We  must  find  out  where  they 
are  hiding  and  help  them  until  they  get  a  start. 

CECIL.    All  come  back  tomorrow. 


KENNETH.  Morning.  Why,  the  Acrobats  have  left  the 
parlor,  too. 

FLORENCE.  There  go  thirty  of  our  ants  past  on  the 
trail,  and  four  are  being  carried.  I  guess  the  four  are 
rattled  and  don't  know  what  to  do.  I  wonder  where  the 
eggs  and  babies  and  queens  are  hidden  while  the  ants  find 
a  place  for  a  new  home? 

CECIL.  A  few  keep  coming  back  to  examine  the  old 
home,  but  I  suppose  they  carry  away  a  bad  report.  We 
don't  know  what  is  down  in  the  old  nest. 

FLORENCE.  Hurrah!  I  followed  an  ant  and  found 
the  new  home !  It's  on  top  of  a  little  bank  only  fifteen  feet 
from  the  old  home.  It's  just  a  crack  in  the  ground  and 
the  ants  will  have  to  make  a  nest  of  it  as  soon  as  they 


176       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

get  over  their  excitement.  Something  awful  must  have 
happened,  the  way  they  are  confused. 

ALBERT.  Several  kinds  of  ants  visit  ours  and  I  don't 
exactly  like  the  looks  of  Longlegs. 

CECIL.     Well,  forget  it.     This  is  Thanksgiving  day. 

FLORENCE.  Yes,  for  us,  but  not  for  our  poor  ants. 
You  don't  know  what  I've  seen.  One  of  our  undertakers 
came  back  to  the  old  home  and  worked  five  hours  all  by 
herself.  She  carried  out  of  the  house  twenty-one  bodies 
and  thirty-fours  heads  of  our  ants  and  left  them  in  a  pile. 

ALBERT.     What? 

FLORENCE.  She  made  fifty-five  round  trips  before  it 
got  too  cool  to  work.  The  bodies  were  all  badly  torn  and 
the  flesh  had  been  removed  even  from  the  skulls — nothing 
left  but  the  skeletons. 

CECIL.  There's  been  an  underground  battle,  then,  sure 
enough. 

FLORENCE.  I'm  not  done  yet.  The  next  day  she  car- 
ried out,  all  alone  again,  fourteen  more  heads,  twenty-seven 
bodies  and  twelve  abdomen  plates — all  sucked  and  licked 
dry  inside. 

KENNETH.     Just  think  of  it. 

FLORENCE.  I  found  eight  skeletons  of  another  ant 
near  the  door,  also. 

DOROTHY.  Good,  good,  good!  Our  ants  killed  a  few 
of  the  enemy  in  the  fight,  anyhow. 

FLORENCE.  Still  I'm  not  done.  Today,  and  this  is  the 
third  day,  our  undertaker  is  still  at  work.  This  time  she 
carried  out  twelve  more  heads  of  our  ants,  four  bodies,  and 
one  abdomen.  This  makes  sixty  heads  in  all  that  she  has 
brought  out  of  the  old  home. 

ALBERT.     That  beats  anything  I  ever  heard  of. 

FLORENCE.     I    found    thirty-two    more    bodies    of    the 


THE  ROBBER  ANTS  177 

enemy  ants  piled  by  the  door,  making  forty  in  all  that  ours 
killed  in  the  fight  before  being  driven  from  home.  That 
is,  we  know  of  that  many. 

CECIL.  The  battle  was  sixty  to  forty  against  ours, 
then.  Well,  I'm  glad  our  ants  put  up  a  stiff  fight,  anyhow. 
And,  no  doubt,  some  of  these  savage  ones  were  still  in  the 
old  home  while  our  undertaker  made  her  125  dangerous 
trips  all  alone. 

KENNETH.  Yes,  and  she  may  have  carried  out  the 
forty  bodies  of  the  enemy  besides. 

CECIL.  You  say  this  ant  worked  five  hours  one  day 
without  stopping,  but  I  think  ants  can  work  longer  than 
that  when  the  weather  is  right.  I  suppose  she  worked,  too, 
when  there  was  no  queen  in  the  nest.  If  so,  this  is  interest- 
ing. 

DOROTHY.  That  undertaker  must  belong  to  the  First 
Aid  Corps,  or  to  the  Ambulance  Corps,  or  to  the  Red  Cross. 

FLORENCE.  Just  think  of  it !  She  was  one  of  a  thou- 
sand brave  enough  to  do  it.  Blind  and  alone,  she  went 
down  into  that  dark  house  of  the  dead,  probably  among  the 
fierce  enemy,  to  search  for  and  rescue  the  bodies  of  her 
murdered  sisters. 

DOROTHY.     I  can  hardly  believe  it. 

FLORENCE.  A  hundred  and  twenty-five  times  did  she 
enter  that  "gloomy  abode  of  the  dead,"  to  carry  a  com- 
rade's head  or  body  from  no-man's-land  to  a  more  decent 
resting  place.  She  had  no  guard  to  protect  her,  no  queen 
present  to  encourage  her,  and  no  ant  at  the  door  to  wel- 
come her  return. 

CECIL.     You're  becoming  serious. 

FLORENCE.  No  fear  of  spooks  or  enemy's  jaws,  stings, 
or  poison  could  keep  her  from  doing  her  duty  to  the  dead 
at  the  risk  of  her  life.  Yet,  she  will  never  get  any  credit 


178      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

marks,  never  be  heard  in  song,  and  never  get  her  name 
on  a  monument.  I  shall  always  believe  she  did  this  work 
without  any  help.  Anybody  that  had  seen  this  would 
believe  the  same. 

DOROTHY.  Quit  or  you'll  have  some  mourners  around 
here. 

FLORENCE.  As  I  sat  for  hours  watching  her,  she 
didn't  pay  the  least  attention  to  me — she  was  too  much 
interested  in  her  sad  task. 

CECIL.  The  day-to-day  life  of  an  ant  has  many  sur- 
prises. I  now  see  that  many  thousands  of  animals;  yes, 
millions,  have  to  work  hard  for  a  living  and  fight  hard 
against  enemies. 

KENNETH.  They  never  know  one  day  what  will  happen 
the  next.  They  are  worse  off  than  we  are  in  this  respect. 

FLORENCE.  You  boys  will  each  be  a  Gloomy  Gus  if 
you  don't  shut  up.  Life  is  a  game  to  enjoy  if  you  get 
mixed  up  in  it  right,  whether  ant  or  man. 

ALBERT.  Well,  it's  plain  that  our  ants  have  been 
whipped  and  driven  from  home  by  some  enemy,  and  here's 
a  pile  of  forty  dead  ones  that  belong  to  the  colony  that 
did  it. 

KENNETH.  Let's  examine  the  bodies  of  the  enemy  and 
learn  something  about  them. 

CECIL.  They  are  reddish  brown,  well  built,  over  one- 
eighth  of  an  inch  long,  and  have  no  eyes.  They  have 
wicked  looking"  jaws.  The  bodies  are  rolled  up  and  not 
torn.  (See  illustration,  p.  243.) 

KENNETH.     Why  don't  you  name  them? 

CECIL.  They  are  Foraging  Ants,  by  name  "Eciton 
(Acamatus)  opacithorax."  In  fact,  they  have  different 
names — Foraging  ants,  Visiting  ants,  Legionary  ants,  Army 
ants.  None  of  these  names  is  bad  enough  to  suit  us  so 


THE  ROBBER  ANTS  179 

we'll  call  them  Eyeless  Robbers,  or  Robbers.  These  Rob- 
bers live  in  the  warm  parts  of  America — say  from  here  to 
Patagonia — and  attack  various  Harvesting  ants  all  along 
the  line.  The  Driver  ants  in  the  warm  parts  of  Asia  and 
Africa  are  much  like  these  Ecitons,  or  Robbers,  but,  if 
possible,  worse. 

KENNETH.  Then  they  are  robbers,  highwaymen,  cut- 
throats, murderers — anything  bad  you  want  to  call  them. 

CECIL.  The  Robber  is  the  savage  of  the  insect  world. 
Often  it  has  no  fixed  home;  sometimes  marches  from  place 
to  place  like  soldiers,  and  steals  and  eats  the  babies  of  ants 
and  other  insects.  But  it  will  not  touch  those  it  finds 
dead. 

ALBERT.  Something  ate  the  full-grown  bodies  of  sixty 
of  our  ants. 

CECIL.  A  colony  has  but  one  queen  and  no  cocoons. 
Often  the  families  are  small,  but  sometimes  very  large. 
Each  baby  is  carried  under  the  body  of  an  ant  as  the 
colony  moves  from  place  to  place. 

FLORENCE.  I  saw  some  small  ants  carrying  some 
babies  that  way  today.  Their  backs  were  dragging  on  the 
sidewalk. 

CECIL.  As  some  kinds  of  Robbers  can't  stand  the  light, 
such  usually  tunnel  their  roads  as  they  go,  but  in  our  town 
they  travel  overland.  They  hide  their  nests  when  they 
have  any  and  also  their  kings  and  queens.  They  will  also 
eat  seeds. 

DOROTHY.    What  else? 

CECIL.  There  are  many  kinds  of  these  ants.  Though 
eyeless,  they  move  rapidly,  lay  many  eggs,  and  have  a  bad 
odor.  Sometimes  this  ant  makes  a  home  of  its  own.  The 
kings  and  queens  are  queer  looking  insects. 

FLORENCE.    How  do  they  hide  their  kings  and  queens? 


180      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.  One  way  is  for  the  workers  to  form  a  ball  of 
ants  around  the  royalty.  These  ants  often  collect  in  clus- 
ters like  bees.  They  are  likely  to  make  their  raids  about 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  but  this  depends  on  the 
weather. 

DOROTHY.  If  most  species  of  Ecitons  carry  on  their 
raids  in  full  view — often  in  sunlight — these  must  have  en- 
tered the  home  of  our  ants  to  do  the  fighting. 

CECIL.  The  females  have  no  wings,  but  these  ants  are 
good  travelers,  and  so  are  scattered  widely.  They  are 
always  on  the  move,  too — have  no  fixed  home. 

Our  Ants'  Yard. 

FLORENCE.     Why  keep  your  yard  so  nicely  graded? 

ANT.  Isn't  it  a  nice  place  to  loaf?  During  most  of  the 
year,  isn't  it  loose  and  healthful,  admitting  air  and  sun- 
shine? Isn't  it  a  good  place  to  air  the  babies  and  a  fine 
place  for  queens  to  exercise  at  night  or  in  the  evening? 

FLORENCE.     I  see. 

ANT.  It  gives  our  guards  a  chance,  too.  The  earth 
pellets  are  from  our  mining  camps,  as  you  know,  and  we 
use  them  as  rollers  under  our  heavy  loads  sometimes. 

CECIL.  These  pellets  make  a  circular  ridge  around  your 
door  with  an  inner  and  outer  slope  of  about  fifteen  de- 
grees. Your  yard  is  about  two  feet  across  when  completed. 
Some  kinds  of  ants  scatter  the  dirt  around  thinly  and 
without  making  a  circular  ridge. 

ANT.  Guess  at  some  of  the  advantages  this  earth  funnel 
is  to  us.  You  know  our  door  is  at  the  bottom  of  the 
funnel. 

CECIL.  All  right.  Besides  the  uses  you  named,  it  guides 
you  to  your  door  after  you  reach  the  crater;  is  a  trap  for 


OUR  ANTS'  YARD  181 

enemies ;  keeps  game  from  escaping ;  prevents  enemies  from 
seeing  inside  the  funnel;  makes  a  good  dry  house;  makes 
it  easy  for  all  near-by  ants  to  rush  into  the  house ;  changes 
the  wind  to  an  eddy;  is  a  fine  place  to  bury  things  you 
can't  move,  and  serves  as  a  roof  to  the  rooms  below. 

KENNETH.  I  saw  some  beetles  tumble  back  while  try- 
ing to  escape  from  your  crater.  One  couldn't  turn  over  on 
your  loose  earth  pellets  when  on  its  back. 

ANT.  You'll  see  disadvantages  in  our  crater,  too.  The 
pellets  roll  under  our  feet  when  we  don't  want  them  to. 
Some  small  enemies  hide  in  the  loose  dirt,  and  you  have 
learned  of  one  big  enemy  that  does  so.  Why,  sometimes 
that  horned  toad  buries  itself  in  the  dirt  of  our  nest 
because  it's  a  nice  place  for  him  to  sleep  in  daytime. 

CECIL.  I  suppose  the  mites  and  other  visitors  clean  up 
your  yard  for  you,  the  same  as  you  clean  ours  for  us. 
Funny  world,  isn't  it? 

KENNETH.  I  saw  you  having  trouble  while  dragging 
out  large  pieces  of  chaff  over  your  earth  pellets.  So  I 
thought  I  would  help  you  by  paving  a  part  of  your  yard 
with  a  nice,  smooth  stone,  but  you  covered  it  up  with  dirt. 

ANT.  We  can  pave  our  inner  grade  with  stones  if  we 
want  to,  thank  you. 

KENNETH.     Why  do  you  make  such  a  large  house? 

ANT.  Why,  I  hear  that  man  often  enlarges  his  house 
and  then  hires  servants  to  take  care  of  the  part  he  doesn't 
need. 

KENNETH.  Doesn't  that  funnel  around  your  door  run 
the  water  in  when  it  rains? 

ANT.  Oh,  a  little,  but  some  of  our  rooms  are  high  and 
the  lower  ones  are  often  drained  into  earth  cracks. 

KENNETH.  Why  do  your  funnels  grow  larger  and 
deeper  as  the  nests  grow  older? 


182       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ANT.  Because  the  rooms  around  the  door  keep  caving 
in.  Notice  the  deep  funnels  around  the  door  of  old  aban- 
doned nests. 

KENNETH.  It's  queer  that  the  wind  doesn't  blow  away 
the  coarse  chaff  that  you  close  the  door  with.  It  seems 
to  hold  it  in. 

CECIL.  Why,  when  the  ants  have  the  kind  of  door  they 
want,  the  wind  will  even  hold  feathers  in  it.  The  eddy 
formed  by  the  funnel  seems  to  be  the  cause. 

KENNETH.  As  your  southwest  wall  crumbles  off,  you 
follow  it  up  with  a  new  door,  closing  the  old  one  with 
pebbles,  and  sticks  and  clods. 

ANT.  Yes.  The  old  covered  stairway  then  makes  a 
nice  ventilated  room  for  eggs,  babies  and  queens. 

KENNETH.  That  southwest  wall  makes  a  good  shade 
for  your  guards  in  the  hot  afternoons. 

CECIL.  I  have  seen  you  close  your  door  with  chaff, 
sticks,  stones,  clods,  dirt,  and  insect  skeletons,  but  with 
chaff  generally. 

ANT.  We  close  it  to  keep  the  heat  or  cold  out  and 
sometimes  to  keep  enemies  out.  See  this  little  pile  of 
gravel?  That's  to  close  the  door  with  if  we  should  need  it. 
You  know  we  might  happen  to  be  out  of  chaff. 

ALBERT.  How  in  the  world  can  you  mine  this  red 
hardpan  ? 

ANT.  Below  the  surface  it  stays  damp  a  long  time,  but 
we  could  mine  it  even  if  it  was  almost  as  hard  as  sand- 
stone by  moistening  it  with  saliva.  That's  the  way  the 
mason  wasp  does.  You  know  that  Hannibal  softened  the 
Alps  with  vinegar. 

KENNETH.  You  removed  about  six  square  inches  of 
crust  that  formed  when  I  sprinkled  your  yard. 

ANT.     We  could  have  a  solid  floor  to  our  funnel  if  we 


ANTS  ARE  USEFUL  TO  MAN  183 

wanted  it.  Some  of  the  upper  rooms  are  ventilated  through 
the  loose  dirt.  See  what  you  did?  We  had  sun-parlors 
under  that  crust. 

Ants  Are  Useful  to  Man. 

KENNETH.  You  don't  bother  man,  but  some  ants  do. 
Some  annoy  him  by  what  they  eat,  some  by  where  they 
nest,  others  by  herding  harmful  insects,  some  by  living  in 
his  house  or  eating  it  up,  and  still  others  sting  or  bite  him. 

DOROTHY.  Do  ants  do  more  harm  or  more  good  to 
man  ? 

CECIL.  I  think  they  do  much  more  good  than  harm, 
and  that  some  kinds  should  be  protected  by  law.  One 
country  does  so.  Our  ants  should  be  protected,  and  so 
should  any  kind  that  destroy  harmful  ants.  If  I  could 
discover  a  kind  that  could  destroy  the  Argentine  ants, 
many  people  would  be  happier  than  they  are. 

ALBERT.  We've  named  several  uses  before.  Are  there 
others  ? 

CECIL.  The  books  say  that  in  China  orange  growers 
ship  ants  from  the  hills  to  destroy  worms.  Bridges  are 
made  of  bamboo  rods  from  tree  to  tree  for  the  ants  to 
cross  on.  Ants  have  too  many  uses  to  mention  here.  Man 
has  used  ants  as  an  object  of  study  for  thousands  of  years. 

ALBERT.    Do  most  ants  sting? 

ANT.  In  this  country,  about  the  home  of  man,  only  a 
few  kinds  have  stings  large  enough  to  bother  him,  and 
many  have  none  at  all. 

KENNETH.  The  Fire  ant  around  here  can't  sting  us,  but 
others  of  the  Southern  States  and  a  large  Harvester  of  the 
great  plains  and  deserts  of  the  Southwest  have  rather  bad 
stings. 


184      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ANT.  Ants  that  can't  sting  you  might  sting  small 
enemies. 

KENNETH.  I  should  think  that  all  you  can  do  in  plow- 
ing and  enriching  the  soil  wouldn't  amount  to  much. 

ANT.  But  suppose  there  were  thousands  of  large  col- 
onies at  work  around  here.  Why,  some  places  the  ground 
is  covered  with  ant  hills  as  far  as  you  can  see — in  fact,  you 
can  see  nothing  else.  Some  mounds  are  higher  than  a 
man's  head  and  the  apartment  rooms  run  down  several 
feet. 

CECIL.  And  this  has  been  going  on  for  thousands;  yes, 
millions  of  years. 

The  Carpenter  Ant. 

FLORENCE.  Plenty  of  the  big  Carpenters  have  been 
around  here  all  fall  and  we're  still  hunting  for  the  nests. 
Of  course,  we  are  passing  right  by  their  doors  every  day, 
and  don't  know  it. 

ANT.  That  ant  slips  out  of  the  nest  at  dark,  or  when 
you  are  not  watching.  You  can't  drive  it  home,  for  it 
won't  go  home  when  you  are  after  it,  but  runs  and  hides. 

KENNETH.  Runs  away  from  home  like  the  mother 
partridge,  and  kildeer,  eh?  And  for  the  same  reason. 

ALBERT.  It  is  easily  scared.  Sometimes  it  runs,  at 
other  times  it  hides  under  something,  and  I  have  seen  it 
play  'possum.  You  seldom  run.  Generally  you  fight  back. 

ANT.  You  say  that  ant  isn't  much  trouble  to  man,  but 
you'll  find  an  objection  to  it  if  you  keep  watching. 

ALBERT.  If  I  should  put  several  Carpenters  in  a  small 
box  they  would  poison  themselves  to  death,  if  they  were 
teased. 

ANT.  Yes,  but  on  the  other  hand,  a  Carpenter  was 
known  to  live  forty-one  days  after  its  head  was  cut  off, 


THE  CARPENTER  ANT  185 

and  the  body  walked  up  to  the  last  two.  Other  ants  have 
been  known  to  live  from  three  to  four  weeks  after  such  an 
accident. 

ALBERT.  Last  summer  I  picked  up  the  rind  of  a 
honey-melon.  The  lone  Carpenter  that  was  on  it  lay  down 
on  her  side  as  if  dead. 

KENNETH.  Have  you  given  all  the  reasons  for  so 
many  dead  Carpenters  around  here?  Our  ants  have  been 
carrying  them  by  the  dozen  all  fall. 

ANT.  Their  natural  home  is  over  in  the  foothills.  When 
they  move  to  town  many  of  their  colonies  die  off.  They 
are  learning  to  be  a  house  ant,  you  know,  since  the  discov- 
ery of  America. 

DOROTHY.  I  saw  one  today  running  from  cover  to 
cover  along  the  sidewalk. 

FLORENCE.  Once  last  fall  I  put  some  sugar  on  a 
blackberry  and  fed  some  Carpenters.  Their  abdomens  be- 
came four  times  as  big  as  at  first. 

KENNETH.  Once  I  turned  my  flashlight  on  fifty  Car- 
penters that  were  eating  a  melon,  and  half  of  them  ran 
away.  But  the  books  say  they  are  entirely  blind,  and  I 
suppose  they  are. 

FLORENCE.  A  boy  brought  a  big  Carpenter  to  school 
and  asked  us  to  let  it  bite  us.  He  said  it  wouldn't  hurt. 
He  was  showing  us  how  to  let  it  get  hold  of  the  skin  be- 
tween the  thumb  and  finger  when  it  got  a  better  hold  than 
he  intended.  You  ought  to  have  seen  him  dance  and 
heard  him  howl  as  he  ran  to  his  teacher  for  help. 

KENNETH.  The  Carpenters  don't  travel  around  much 
after  the  rainy  season  begins.  Our  ants  will  not  bring  in 
many  of  their  bodies  then.  The  Carpenters  house-up 
for  winter. 


186       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  XII. 
January  12  to  January  27. 
Instinct,  Learning,  Memory. 

ALBERT.    They  say  an  ant  has  instinct.    What's  that? 

ANT.  Acting  for  the  community  without  the  influence 
of  self-experience  and  without  knowing  why  you  are 
doing  it. 

ALBERT.  That's  too  much  for  me.  But  I  think  ants 
can  learn.  You  know  that  you  carried  very  few  melon 
seed  home  until  after  Florence  got  to  cracking  them  for 
you.  After  that  you  brought  in  a  pile  every  day. 

FLORENCE.  Yes,  and  I've  seen  your  ants  drop  twenty 
on  the  trail  when  the  sun  got  too  hot.  Do  you  remember 
that  time  you  stood  on  my  thumb  while  I  took  the  melon 
seed  away  from  you,  removed  the  kernel  and  handed  it 
back?  I  then  lowered  my  hand  and  you  strutted  away, 
taking  the  kernel  home.  Why,  some  of  you  are  regular 
pets. 

KENNETH.  Yes,  but  not  the  young  ones.  I  thought 
two  of  them  had  stung  me  today  until  I  saw  their  sharp 
teeth  and  the  sharp  dagger  on  each  jaw. 

FLORENCE.  At  last  I've  made  a  trail  that  you  will  use, 
but  you  shy  clear  of  the  bridge  over  a  tiny  canyon.  My 
trail  passes  across  a  mat  of  tangled  grass  that  you  could 
hardly  get  through. 

ALBERT.     Have  ants  memory? 

CECIL.     They  seem  to  remember  today  where  the  seeds 


INSTINCT,  LEARNING,  MEMORY  187 

were  yesterday,  but  their  memory  may  not  be  like  ours. 

FLORENCE.  I  guess  nobody  can  tell  what  instinct  is. 
Seems  like  we  do  most  everything  by  instinct — same  as  the 
ant  does.  I  guess  the  intelligence  of  an  ant  is  mostly  a 
fable,  like  ^Esop's  fable  of  the  wise  ant  and  the  singing 
grasshopper. 

ANT.  That  fable  is  thousands  of  years  old.  Children  of 
all  nations  and  all  languages  read  it  or  hear  it  and  maybe 
believe  it. 

CECIL.  I  agree  that  most  all  we  have  seen  our  ants  do 
are  illustrations  of  the  working  of  instinct. 

FLORENCE.     Give  an  example. 

CECIL.  Once  in  Ohio  a  large  ant  was  attacked  by 
small  ones,  and  killed,  but  several  of  the  small  ones  lost 
their  lives  also,  or  were  crippled.  Then  the  crippled  and 
killed  were  all  gathered  up  and  taken  to  the  home  of  the 
small  ants,  for  I  saw  them  taken. 

ALBERT.  I  left  a  piece  of  spoiled  flesh  on  the  yard. 
The  ants  couldn't  move  it,  so  they  covered  it  up — the  same 
as  man  would  have  done.  They  did  the  same  with  a  tin 
can  lid. 

KENNETH.  Different  kinds  of  ants  sometimes  move 
into  the  same  house  for  winter  and  for  other  reasons. 

CECIL.  All  these  are  illustrations  of  instinct,  I  suppose, 
when  it  happens  to  be  ants  instead  of  men  that  do  it.  I'll 
give  another.  In  flood  time  some  kinds  of  Fire  ants  take 
their  eggs  and  babies  and  queens  out  of  the  nest,  form  a 
ball  of  ants  with  the  young  and  royalty  at  the  center, 
change  places  often  enough  to  keep  from  drowning,  and 
float  to  some  shore. 


188      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

Traps.    Snares. 

FLORENCE.  You  told  us  how  the  ant  lions  set  traps 
for  our  ants  and  once  filaree  chaff  coiled  around  one  of 
our  ants. 

CECIL.  Yes,  and  afterwards  I  found  another  ant 
trapped  in  the  coil  of  that  seed.  After  I  dropped  the  seed 
in  water,  the  coil  untwisted,  freeing  the  ant.  I  carried  her 
home.  After  she  brushed  and  combed,  she  walked  into 
the  house  all  right,  except  one  leg  was  a  little  stiff. 

KENNETH.  I  suppose  the  ants  get  trapped  in  the 
morning  when  the  tails  are  coiling  up.  If  the  workers  are 
not  squeezed  to  death  they  might  get  loose  the  next  night, 
when  the  tails  get  damp  and  uncoil. 

CECIL.     The  seed  is  trying  to  plant  itself. 

FLORENCE.  I  wonder  if  the  coil  couldn't  trap  an  ant 
while  the  ant  is  carrying  the  seed  home? 

CECIL.  A  spider  built  a  trap  in  front  of  our  ants'  door 
last  night  and  snared  seven.  This  morning  the  other  ants 
tried  to  break  the  guy  ropes,  but  failed.  I  tore  the  trap 
down  and  threw  it  by  the  door.  An  ant  tried  to  drag  it 
away,  but  she  got  caught,  too. 

FLORENCE.  Once  I  saw  an  ant  get  caught  in  some 
pine  wax.  You  know  that's  the  way  the  ants  were  caught 
that  are  now  found  in  fossil  amber. 

CECIL.  Pitcher  plants  fix  up  a  bowl  of  water  for  ants 
to  fall  into.  Then  the  plant  eats  them.  Other  plants 
secrete  a  wax  to  keep  ants  away  from  them,  in  some  in- 
stances. 

KENNETH.  I  saw  three  of  our  ants  strung  up  in  a 
spider  web  and  also  saw  a  spider  carrying  an  ant  away 
from  the  trail, 


ANIMALS  THAT  LIVE  WITH  ANTS  189 

Animals  That  Live  With  Ants. 

ALBERT.  It  seems  that  ants  use  some  animals  for  food 
and  treat  others  as  guests.  Those  that  are  called  guests 
are  divided  into  three  classes: 

1.  Those  the  ants  would  drive  away  if  they  could. 

2.  Those  the  ants  don't  care  anything  about,  one  way 
or  another. 

3.  Those  the  ants  like  to  have  live  with  them. 
ANT.     Yes,  and  you  might  say  the  same  of  man. 
ALBERT.     How  many  kinds  of  the  first  two  divisions 

together  live  with  ants? 

CECIL.     One  man  has  named  1,246. 

ALBERT.  How  many  of  the  third  division  live  with 
ants? 

CECIL.  The  books  say  there  are  300  to  400  kinds  of 
these  welcome  guests.  Say  1,600  as  a  total  of  all  three 
kinds. 

ALBERT.  Have  all  the  welcome  guests  any  one  thing 
that  makes  ants  like  them? 

ANT.  As  a  rule  they  all  bear  tufts  of  red  or  golden 
yellow  hairs.  These  give  off  a  gas  that  ants  like  to  smoke. 
Some  think  the  hairs  give  off  a  sweet  substance  the  ants 
like. 

CECIL.  Some  of  the  ants  become  so  addicted  to  smok- 
ing that  they  neglect  their  own  babies.  So  their  own  half- 
starved  offspring  become  lazy  outcast  workers  or  deformed 
queens. 

ANT.  Some  of  the  bugs  have  the  ants  completely 
fooled,  for  they  eat  the  ant-eggs  and  babies.  Sometimes 
the  ants  trade  liquid  food  for  smokes. 

CECIL.     Why,  the  tongues  of  some  of  the  beetles  have 


190       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

changed  to  spoons,  and  the  feelers  of  some  have  changed 
to  handles  so  the  ants  can  carry  the  lazy  bugs  around. 
Some  of  the  feelers  have  lanterns  in  them. 

ANT.  Some  of  the  bugs  are  given  joy  rides  on  the 
backs  of  ants. 

KENNETH.  These  ants  are  as  crazy  as  the  bird  that 
rears  the  cuckoo's  brood,  or  the  cat  that  rears  a  puppy  or 
rat,  or  the  hen  that  mothers  a  kitten  or  gosling. 

CECIL.  Some  of  these  bugs  lay  their  eggs  among  the 
ant  eggs  and  let  the  kind  ant  nurses  do  the  rest.  But  ants 
will  nurse  almost  anything  that  looks  like  an  ant  baby. 

ANT.  Why,  these  ants  will  rescue  these  bug  babies 
before  they  do  their  own. 

FLORENCE.  I  see  why  these  bugs  like  to  live  with 
ants.  Protection,  home,  food — all  without  work. 

ANT.  About  1,000  of  the  animals  that  live  with  ants 
are  beetles. 

KENNETH.  Some  bugs  that  live  with  ants  have  artil- 
lery and  shoot  an  explosive  liquid  into  the  soft  parts  of 
the  enemy  to  kill  it  or  paralyze  it.  Suppose  these  bugs  get 
too  hungry  and  turn  their  artillery  on  the  ants  they  live 
with.  Then  what? 

ANT.  For  some  reason  many  of  them  can  not  or  will 
not  turn  it  on  the  hand  that  feeds  them — not  even  if  they 
are  attacked  by  the  ants.  But  often  they  rob  the  ant 
nurseries. 

FLORENCE.  What  effect  does  smoking  have  on  the 
ants? 

ANT.  I've  already  told  you.  Too  many  loafers  around 
these  cigarette  stands  is  about  to  destroy  some  kinds  of 
ants,  judging  from  their  condition  (social  disease  or  social 
obsession). 

CECIL.      Man,    ants    and    manv    other    animals    live    in 


ANIMAL  FOOD  191 

groups  instead  of  alone,  like  the  cat.  This  is  when  they 
have  plenty  of  food.  I  suppose  that  many  of  the  ant 
quests  lived  alone  and  concluded  they  would  move  into 
ant  colonies,  where  there  was  plenty  of  food.  "What  if  our 
ants  would  quit  work? 

ALBERT.  I  read  of  a  small  cockroach  that  lives  with 
an  African  ant  and  takes  airplane  rides  on  the  backs  of 
the  winged  ants. 

FLORENCE.  How  do  the  little  crickets  that  live  with 
ants  make  a  living? 

CECIL.  They  make  a  living  by  licking  ants.  They  live 
on  the  oil  and  saliva  that  the  ants  burnish  their  bodies 
with. 

KENNETH.  You  know  our  ants  left  a  hundred  white 
mites  in  the  nest  when  they  moved.  I  saw  these  same 
mites  running  around  on  the  yard  several  times  before  our 
ants  left. 

FLORENCE.  Certain  other  mites  get  on  your  body. 
Yes,  and  sometimes  mould  gets  on  you  down  in  your  damp 
house.  How  do  you  get  them  off? 

ANT.  We  get  the  mould  off  with  our  rough  tongues, 
and  try  to  get  the  mites  off  the  same  way. 

DOROTHY.     What  harm  can  mites  do? 

ANT.  You  saw  the  captured  ant  colony  in  the  show- 
window  of  the  drug  store.  Well,  all  the  ants  of  a  captured 
colony  may  be  destroyed  by  mites.  The  same  is  true  of  a 
wild  colony. 

Animal  Food. 

ALBERT.  I  notice  that  many  ants  use  other  animals  as 
food — even  Harvester  ants  use  some  animal  food.  Our 
ants  could  hardly  drag  a  spider  because  it  kept  spinning  a 
thread  that  entangled  the  ants'  legs. 


192      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  You  don't  always  hunt  in  groups,  for  I 
saw  a  lone  ant  coming*  home  from  a  distance  with  a 
cucumber  bug. 

KENNETH.  I  threw  a  handful  of  sow  bugs  into  our 
ants'  nest,  but  they  soon  rushed  out  covered  with  ants. 

FLORENCE.     I  don't  see  how  you  can  eat  dried  meat. 

ANT.  Is  it  any  harder  to  eat  than  the  dried  seeds  you 
see  us  carry  home  by  the  thousand? 

KENNETH.     Isn't  the  sow  bug  an  insect? 

FLORENCE.  I  should  say  not.  The  sow  bug  is  a 
louse,  a  wood  louse,  and  our  ants  eat  it,  too. 

CECIL.  I  left  a  jumping  spider  and  three  large  insect 
larvae  on  the  crater  and  the  ants  carried  them  in.  That 
spider  can  jump  four  inches.  Once  I  saw  it  spring  up 
from  one  weed  to  another. 

DOROTHY.  Often  I  see  our  ants  dragging  home  the 
bodies  of  honey  bees.  I  wonder  if  ants  ever  bother  bee 
hives  ? 

CECIL.  Some  kinds  of  ants  will  enter  beehives  for 
honey. 

KENNETH.  Once  last  fall  I  saw  a  Carpenter  trying  to 
keep  bees,  flies  and  yellow  jackets  away  from  the  fruit 
parings.  They  all  wanted  the  piece  of  cactus  apple.  The 
ant  often  fell  several  inches  in  springing  at  the  other 
insects.  The  bees  and  yellow  jackets  wouldn't  budge  until 
they  were  actually  tackled. 

CECIL.  An  ant  and  a  rose  beetle  were  on  one  of  the 
little  posts  by  the  nest.  The  ant  climbed  over  the  bug 
three  times,  lay  close  beside  it  for  a  while,  held  its  mouth 
against  the  bug  half  a  minute  three  times,  but  stayed  by 
itself  most  of  the  day. 

KENNETH.  A  rose  beetle  was  on  one  of  the  little  posts. 
I  threw  the  bug  on  the  ground.  Five  ants  attacked  it  and 


ANIMAL  FOOD  193 

were  carried  up  the  post  with  jaws  clenched  on  legs.  An 
old  ant  tried  to  pull  a  feeler  off,  but  her  jaws  slipped. 
After  six  trials  she  gave  up. 

CECIL.  And  then  the  ants  carried  the  bug  down  and 
up  to  the  door.  After  a  scramble  the  ants  carried  the  bug 
up  the  post  this  time,  but  soon  left. 

KENNETH.  Then,  strange  to  say,  the  bug  went  down 
and  into  the  door,  but  was  chased  away.  Its  shell  was  so 
hard  the  ants  couldn't  hurt  it  much,  but  it  lost  a  foot  in 
the  skirmish. 


194      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

January  12  to  January  27. 

Water.    Rain. 

FLORENCE.     Do  you  drink  much? 

ANT.  Ants  like  plenty  of  water,  but  can  live  a  long 
time  without  it.  We  get  it  at  the  hydrants,  on  sprinkled 
lawns,  and  use  fog,  dew,  or  rain  water.  Some  plants  fur- 
nish water  and  the  soft  parts  of  animal  food  contain  much. 
The  walls  of  our  lower  rooms  stay  damp  a  long  time,  and 
besides  we  dig  wells  to  damper  ground,  too. 

KENNETH.  I  have  laid  a  wet  stick  at  your  door  and  a 
dozen  ants  are  drinking.  They  got  enough  in  three  min- 
utes, not  very  dry.  Once  I  thought  I'd  give  you  enough 
to  eat  and  drink.  This  was  the  bill  of  fare : 

Raw  green  corn — all  carried  indoors. 

Cooked  green  corn — not  touched. 

Rind  of  fig — hardly  noticed. 

Flesh  of  fig — liked  by  a  few  ants. 

Rind  of  cantaloupe — not  touched. 

Honey  cantaloupe— several  ate  it. 

Raw  potato — but  few  cared  for  it. 

Raisin  and  prune — well  liked. 

Cooked  squash — no  good. 

Fly— 0.  K. 

Cracked  cantaloupe  seed,  squash  seed,  English  walnut, 

filbert  and  almond — all  carried  in.     Ants  preferred 

the  walnut, 

DOROTHY.  I  gave  our  ants  some  sugar  water.  Why 
did  so  manv  fall  in? 


WATER  RAIN  195 

ANT.  Sometimes  water  will  wet  an  ant  and  sometimes 
it  won't.  When  it  does  it  runs  up  her  legs  and  pulls  her 
in.  If  the  water  dries  and  her  feet  stick  to  the  dish,  she 
may  fall  in. 

KENNETH.  I  placed  a  little  sweetened  water  in  a  flat 
dish.  The  next  morning  two  dead  ants  were  dried  to  the 
bottom. 

CECIL.  Why  do  our  ants  prefer  dry  sugar  to  sugar 
water  ? 

KENNETH.  I  don't  know,  unless  it  is  safer  for  them  to 
do  their  own  moistening  with  their  saliva. 

CECIL.  I  tried  out  the  Honey  ants,  and  they  preferred 
the  sugar  water. 

KENNETH.  I  set  a  can  lid  of  water  by  the  door.  Some 
ants  drank  from  the  edge.  When  the  rim  was  full  of  ants 
they  held  on  to  each  other  and  floated  on  the  water.  The 
wind  blew  bunches  across  to  the  other  shore,  and  some 
skated  across  alone.  Only  one  ant  sank  in  half  an  hour. 
They  seemed  to  be  having  a  great  time  at  the  swimming 
pool. 

FLORENCE.  I  put  some  water  in  a  tin  scoop,  set  it 
slanting,  and  the  first  fifty  ants  that  tried  to  drink  slid  in 
and  couldn't  get  out. 

KENNETH.  One  at  a  time  I  teased  a  dozen  ants  with 
a  straw  until  they  took  hold  of  it  with  their  jaws,  and  then 
I  baptized  them.  They  all  came  to  the  top  except  one. 

ALBERT.  When  I  want  to  float,  I  have  to  tie  bladders, 
or  water-wings,  under  my  fins. 

KENNETH.  So  do  the  ants.  An  ant  forces  air  out  of 
the  tubes  of  its  body.  These  bubbles,  or  bladders,  stick  to 
the  ant  and  lift  it  to  the  top  of  the  water.  I  counted  from 
one  to  five  bladders  on  each  of  the  eleven  ants  that  arose 
to  the  surface  and  none  on  the  other  ant, 


196      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.  I  suppose  an  ant  can  trap  some  air  in  the  joints 
of  its  oiled  legs  and  under  its  chin  when  you  force  it  under 
water.  Some  spiders  can  do  this.  These  bubbles  would 
help  lift  the  ant  to  the  surface,  also. 

KENNETH.  A  ball  of  our  ants  could  float  across  a 
stream  now  if  the  wind  was  right,  They  shine  as  if  they 
had  time  to  oil  and  burnish  their  bodies.  If  this  doesn't 
quite  tally  with  what  we  may  see  at  other  times,  remember 
these  ants  were  ducked. 

CECIL.     Yes. 

KENNETH.  I  know  a  colony  of  Honey  ants  that  live 
by  a  small  pond  that  has  water  in  it  the  year  round.  I  saw 
some  of  these  ants  actually  swim,  the  same  as  I  can,  and 
others  could  walk  on  the  water  by  letting  their  abdomens 
touch  the  top  film  of  water. 

CECIL.     That's  a  new  one. 

KENNETH.  I  put  twenty  of  these  ants  in  a  bottle  of 
water,  and  shook  it  for  fifteen  minutes,  and  they  all  sank. 
Two  hours  later  they  all  came  to  the  top  and  showed  me 
what  all  they  could  do,  and  wound  up  by  collecting  into  a 
ball  and  floating. 

ALBERT.  It  drizzled  a  little  this  morning,  and  I  was 
surprised  to  see  that  your  ants  enjoyed  the  mist,  So  I 
poured  a  quart  of  water  on  an  ant.  She  dropped  her  seed, 
lay  down,  and  was  motionless. 

CECIL.  Yes;  but  after  the  puddle  dried  up,  the  ant 
came  to,  wiped  off:'  her  feelers,  and  started  back  to  the  har- 
vest field. 

FLORENCE.     How  long  could  an  ant  live  under  water? 

ANT.  Ants  differ  in  this — say,  from  twenty-seven  hours 
to  eight  days.  You  see,  there  would  soon  be  no  ants  if 
floods  drowned  them.  Remember  where  they  live. 

DOROTHY.     I  wet  the  ground  today,  and  the  ants  be- 


WATER  RAIN  197 

came  so  thick  that  they  stood  on  their  heads  to  drink — a 
hundred  to  the  square  inch.  They  suck  and  lap  the  water 
from  the  ground.  It  took  these  a  long  time  to  drink. 

FLORENCE.  What  do  you  do  with  eggs  and  babies 
when  water  gets  into  your  house? 

ANT.  Rush  them  to  upper  rooms  or  to  some  dry  place. 
Of  course,  the  whole  family  is  under  flood  waters  some 
times. 

KENNETH.  I  carefully  set  an  ant  on  water,  and  it 
didn't  break  through  the  top  film.  The  film  will  hold  up  a 
little  greased  needle. 

CECIL.  If  an  ant  breaks  through,  often  it  can't  get 
back  on  account  of  the  film. 

KENNETH.  If  an  ant  sinks  in  water,  it  may  crawl  a 
little  on  the  bottom  or  up  a  stick,  but  the  film  holds  it  back 
even  if  the  ant  gets  its  head  out.  As  a  rule,  an  ant  gives 
up  under  water. 

CECIL.  If  an  ant  is  heavy  and  its  body  not  oiled  up,  it 
is  likely  to  sink  in  water.  Sometimes  ants  don't  seem  to 
be  able  to  make  bubbles  that  will  raise  them  to  the  top. 

ALBERT.  A  man  said,  "You  can  find  water  under  that 
ants'  nest."  You  might  find  moist  ground,  but  you 
wouldn't  find  sheet  water  in  the  first  few  hundred  feet. 

FLORENCE.  I  wet  the  ground  again,  and  a  thousand 
ants  came  out  to  drink  as  usual.  I  dropped  a  big  grass- 
hopper by  them.  An  ant  grabbed  a  foot,  and  got  several 
fine  aeroplane  rides  free,  but  the  landings  must  have  given 
pretty  hard  jolts.  I  wonder  if  she  ever  got  back  home. 

ALBERT.  January,  and  no  rain  to  speak  of  yet.  The 
driest  fall  in  sixty-seven  years.  No  wonder  our  ants  are 
thirsty. 

CECIL.     Water  seems  to  wet  the  legs  of  Longlegs  and 


198       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

Acrobats  at  this  time  and  bind  them  together  with  a  film  so 
the  ants  can't  walk. 

ALBERT.  I  kept  a  patch  of  ground  wet  from  three 
o'clock  until  midnight,  and  several  of  our  ants  were  drink- 
ing every  time  I  looked. 

KENNETH.  I  think  I  ought  to  say  that  last  summer 
nearly  all  our  dusty  workers  would  sink  when  dropped  in 
water.  Hardly  any  of  them  do  now.  Even  when  pushed 
under  water  they  come  up  like  a  rubber  ball.  Water 
doesn't  wet  them.  One  floated  all  night. 

CECIL.  Maybe  they  were  well-fed,  heavy  and  dusty  last 
summer,  but  are  empty,  full  of  air,  light,  oiled  and  glossy 
now.  You  know  the  saliva  has  a  little  oil  in  it.  This  shines 
the  body  and  kills  bacteria  and  moulds  and  helps  make  the 
ants  float. 

KENNETH.  I  see.  They  have  little  to  do  now  but 
arrange  their  toilets  and  get  ready  to  float  when  the 
flood  comes.  Well,  I  think  there  is  more  to  learn  about  this 
floating. 

DOROTHY.  So  do  I.  I  thought  I'd  water  the  ants,  and 
so  gave  them  some  in  a  can  lid.  It  ran  up  their  legs  and 
pulled  seven  in.  They  floated  a  while,  and  then  all  sank. 

CECIL.  Yes,  but  it  began  to  drizzle  at  ten  o'clock  at 
night,  and  kept  it  up  for  six  hours.  Nine  more  ants  fell 
into  the  lid  of  water,  but  floated  from  midnight  until  eight 
o'clock  the  next  morning,  eight  hours,  and  were  then  well 
and  lively.  Even  the  rain  didn't  sink  them. 

FLORENCE.  Dorothy,  what  became  of  the  seven  ants 
that  you  saw  go  to  the  bottom? 

DOROTHY.  I  took  them  out  sixteen  hours  after  I 
thought  they  were  drowned  and  in  an  hour  they  came  to 
and  went  to  work.  Maybe  they  were  sorry  they  missed  the 
diizzle,  for  the  other  ants  seemed  to  like  it. 


MINING  A  HOME  190 

CECPL.  Well,  now  I  don't  know  what  to  think.  Maybe 
the  seven  that  sank  were  frightened  at  you  and  sank  on 
purpose. 

DOROTHY.  If  the  queen  can  fill  her  tubes  with  air  just 
before  she  takes  her  flight,  why  might  not  other  ants  do 
so  when,  they  don't  want  to  sink  ? 

CECIL.    You  see  I  ducked  the  ants  in  my  experiment. 

DOROTHY.  The  safest  way  to  water  the  ants  is  to  pour 
some  water  on  the  ground,  as  they  will  fall  into  a  dish — at 
least,  ours  do. 

Mining  a  Home. 
CECIL.    At  last,  January  12,  we  have  had  the  first  good 


Harvester  Carrying  a  Pellet  of  Earth,  or  Mud  Ball. 

rain  of  the  season.  It  lias  rained  a  half  inch.  The  Acro- 
bats and  Longlegs  enjoyed  the  shower  as  well  as  our  ants 
did.  But  only  about  seventy-five  of  ours  were  out  at 
midnight. 

KENNETH.  Yes,  but  look  at  them  this  morning.  Al- 
though they  had  done  no  mining  in  their  new  home,  we 
thought  they  had  closed  up  their  doors  a  week  ago  and 
quit  work  for  the  winter,  but  see  these  500  miners  carrying 
out  earth  pellets.  Probably  there  are  that  many  more 


200       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

inside  digging'  the  dirt  loose.  Don't  they  look  happy?  The 
rain  must  have  softened  the  earth  for  them. 

ALBERT.  See  the  crowd  of  ants.  They  have  opened  up 
five  new  doors  that  we  didn't  know  of  because  they  were 
kept  closed  with  clods  and  stones.  Fine  scheme  to  have 
these  all  ready  when  they  should  need  them. 

CECIL.  The  doors  are  jammed  with  dirt  carriers  two  or 
three  ants  deep.  Look  at  the  rush.  Never  saw  our  ants 
so  swift  before.  Must  be  getting  ready  for  another  world 
war.  I  wondered  why  they  didn't  go  to  work  and  make 
a  decent  home  out  of  this  earth-crack.  They  were  waiting 
for  this  rain. 

KENNETH.  Here's  a  gang  at  work  making  a  new  door. 
All  the  doors  are  within  a  circle  six  inches  across.  I'm 
going  to  help.  There,  I  made  a  new  door  with  my  pencil. 

ALBERT.  Shucks,  yours  is  no  good !  Look  at  the  ants 
filling  it  up. 

CECIL.  It's  wonderful  how  much  dirt  a  thousand  ants 
can  dig  and  carry  out  in  an  hour  when  mining  is  good. 
The  rain  made  the  earth  easy  to  dig  and  mould  into  balls. 
You  remember  the  undertaker  that  made  fifty-five  round 
trips  in  five  hours.  I  think  these  are  beating  that  record. 

FLORENCE.  I've  seen  a  thousand  ants  out  harvesting, 
but  I  never  saw  so  many  working  in  the  mines  before. 

CECIL.  Good  morning.  Well,  our  ants  worked  all  day 
yesterday  and  last  night  at  midnight  nearly  two  hundred 
were  still  on  the  job.  See,  some  of  them  still  wear  a  top- 
knot of  dried  mud,  while  others  have  a  streak  of  it  the 
full  length  of  the  back.  Too  busy  to  clean  up. 

ALBERT.  They  have  carried  out  fourteen  cubic  inches 
in  thirty-six  hours,  but  only  half  that  if  well  packed. 

FLORENCE.     According  to  those  figures,  our  ants  could 


MINING  A  HOME  201 

build  a  house  in  a  day  or  two.  But  it's  a  good  thing  they 
are  making  more  room.  They  will  need  it  in  two  or  three 
months  for  eggs  and  babies.  I  was  calling  our  ants  lazy 
about  house  building  since  they  moved  here,  but  I  take  it 
all  back. 

KENNETH.  About  a  dozen  went  out  and  brought  in 
some  saltgrass  seed  while  the  others  were  mining. 

ALBERT.  Ours  lived  at  the  telephone  pole  six  weeks 
before  they  were  driven  away  by  the  Robbers,  and  they've 
lived  here  six  weeks.  I  think  they  have  concluded  to  fix 
up  this  house  right,  and  will  now  quit  going  back  so  often 
to  inspect  the  old  one.  They've  given  up  the  idea  of  mov- 
ing back. 

CECIL.  The  other  Harvester  colonies  around  here  have 
room  enough,  for  they're  not  mining  much.  This  is  the  first 
real  mining  ours  have  done  at  this  nest. 

KENNETH.  The  Acrobats  mined  just  like  ours,  after 
the  first  rain.  They  scatter  the  dirt  over  a  Avide  space  and 
make  runways  through  it. 

ALBERT.  Since  the  rain  all  kinds  of  bugs  and  other 
insects  are  out  hustling  around.  The  ground  will  soon  be 
green  again,  and  they'll  all  be  happy — sow  bugs,  spiders, 
insects  and  all. 

KENNETH.  Spring  is  coming,  for  one  of  our  ants 
brought  out  a  weed  that  had  sprouted  in  the  house. 


202       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

January  27  to  April  20. 

Carpenters,  Harvesters,  Other  Insects.     The  Rainy  Season. 

FLORENCE.  At  last,  at  last !  We've  found  the  nest  of 
the  big  Carpenter  ant.  We've  been  hunting-  for  it  for  seven 
months,  and  have  been  running  over  it  every  day.  WTe 
were  told  we  would  find  it  after  the  rains  came,  and  that 
Ave  would  be  surprised. 

KENNETH.  Yes,  I've  found  seven  colonies  on  this  back 
yard  today.  Doesn't  that  beat  you?  They  carry  dirt  just 
like  ours  do,  only  their  earth  pellets  are  larger. 

FLORENCE.  No  wonder  we  couldn't  find  the  nest.  The 
only  sign  is  a  half-inch  hole  in  the  ground,  except  when 
they  are  mining. 

CECIL.  There  are  about  fifty  kinds  of  real  Carpenters, 
but  some  other  ants  live  in  wood  and  may  be  called  Car- 
penters— some  kinds  of  Acrobats,  for  instance. 

FLORENCE.  But  it  seems  strange  that  a  Carpenter 
will  live  in  the  ground. 

CECIL.  Even  men  and  bees  will  live  in  the  ground  if 
it  is  the  best  place  they  can  get.  Several  kinds  of  Carpen- 
ters in  dry  countries  extend  their  nests  down  tree  trunks 
into  the  ground  to  moist  earth  or  to  Avater.  This  one  does, 
and  even  builds  altogether  in  the  ground,  around  this 
place. 

FLORENCE.  But  their  big  jaws  were  really  made  to 
Avood  with. 


CARPENTERS,  HARVESTERS        203 

CECIL.  The  Carpenters  live  almost  everywhere.  They 
Imild  under  stones  or  other  objects,  in  soft  or  hard  wood  or 
hark,  and  even  in  the  ground.  Instead  of  building  a  nest, 
a  colony  may  live  in  an  oak  gall  or  oak  ball,  in  a  dried 
bean  pod,  in  a  nest  along  with  other  ants,  or  in  one  made 
by  another  insect. 

FLORENCE.    They're  not  very  hard  to  please. 

CECIL.  They  may  build  paper  houses  in  trees,  as  does 
the  hornet — may  even  build  mud  houses  in  trees. 

FLORENCE.  I  read  that  some  kinds  hold  their  babies 
in  their  jaws,  and  then  use  the  babies  as  shuttles  in  spin- 
ning and  weaving  silk  with  which  to  bind  the  edges  of 
leaves  together  for  a  new  house.  As  many  as  a  hundred 
ants  may  work  at  this  at  a  time. 

DOROTHY.  What  do  their  babies  eat  ?  You  know,  we 
saw  the  ants  carrying  some  flies  home. 

CECIL.  They  eat  almost  anything  from  honeydew  to 
the  pith  of  trees. 

FLORENCE.  These  ants  liked  the  honey  and  cooked 
apple  that  I  gave  them,  but  carried  the  squash  seed  far 
away. 

CECIL.  A  Carpenter  has  been  known  to  go  nine  months 
without  food. 

KENNETH.  January  27th,  and  it  has  rained  an  inch 
within  the  last  two  days.  Soon  after  the  last  rain,  January 
12th,  our  ants  finished  mining  and  closed  up  their  doors 
tight  for  winter. 

CECIL.  And  this  rain  has  smoothed  their  doors  over 
until  no  one  would  imagine  a  thousand  or  two  of  ants 
below.  There's  no  sign  of  a  nest.  These  Carpenters  com- 
menced mining  as  soon  as  ours  quit. 

KENNETH.  Several  of  the  Acrobat  nests  are  on  low 
ground  and  the  workers  are  stiff  with  mud  and  cold,  but 


204       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

they  won't  give  up.  Their  masons  built  a  fine  wall  by  the 
doorway.  The  ants  remove  a  stone  when  they  want  to  go 
out  or  in. 

FLORENCE.  I  find  the  Carpenters  do  their  mining 
after  dark,  so  the  birds  and  I  won't  see  them.  One  of  the 
colonies  is  building  in  dry  ground  and  is  carrying  the  dry 
dirt  out  in  basketfuls  (jawfuls)  instead  of  making  mud 
balls  of  it. 

CECIL.  Those  that  live  in  wood  have  some  members 
with  very  large  heads  that  make  handy  doors.  Some  kinds 
keep  large  herds  of  other  insects  in  their  nests. 

KENNETH.  And  many  have  new  queens  only  every  two 
or  three  years.  A  completed  colony  is  likely  to  have  about 
2,000  ants.  These  around  here  must  not  be  complete  yet, 

ALBERT.  The  Carpenters  are  the  largest  ant,  but  I  see 
that  some  are  several  times  as  large  as  others,  even  in  the 
same  colony. 

CECIL.  The  books  say  it  would  take  a  hundred  of.  the 
smallest  kind  of  ants  to  equal  one  big  Carpenter  in  size, 
but  I  think  it  would  take  five  hundred.  The  largest  Car- 
penter is  over  a  half  inch  long,  and  the  dwarf  ants  we 
found  are  less  than  one-sixteenth  of  an  inch  in  length.  I 
figure  that  the  Carpenter  is  five  hundred  times  as  large  as 
one  of  these. 

FLORENCE.  Hardly.  Think  of  one  man  weighing  two 
hundred  pounds  and  another  only  two-fifths  of  a  pound. 
Some  dwarf ! 

CECIL.  Why,  the  queen  of  the  Dwarf  ants  we  found  is 
a  thousand  times  as  big  as  one  of  their  workers.  Some 
female  spiders  are  fifteen  hundred  times  as  large  as  the 
males. 

DOROTHY.  The  Longlegs  are  mining,  too.  I  gave  them 
an  insect  and  they  dragged  it  indoors. 


CARPENTERS,  HARVESTERS        205 

ALBERT.  The  sow  bugs  are  out,  too,  and  having  a  high 
old  time. 

DOROTHY.  Well,  we've  had  another  half  inch  of  rain, 
and  all  the  ants  that  hadn't  finished  mining  are  happy. 
But  ours  are  still  housed  up  and  have  been  ever  since  Janu- 
ary 13th.  Once  in  a  while  one  will  come  out  to  see  if  every- 
thing is  all  right. 

FLORENCE.  I  counted  thirty-six  of  ours  in  the  sun- 
parlor  while  it  was  raining. 

ALBERT.  The  ants  have  made  Kenneth's  parlor  two 
inches  square  since  they  use  it  for  themselves  instead  of 
for  their  babies. 

CECIL.  Their  rooms  are  ventilated  through  doors  we 
can't  see.  Then  the  damp  walls  would  take  up  some  of  the 
bad  breath. 

DOROTHY.  Some  of  the  other  Harvester  colonies  are 
mining  today.  Their  outer  doors  were  so  big  they  couldn't 
close  them  if  they  tried. 

KENNETH.  I  exchanged  my  glass  roof  on  the  sun- 
parlor  for  a  tin  one.  One  night  there  were  several  ants  in 
the  room  when  it  was  raining.  I  guess  they  liked  to  hear 
the  rain  on  the  roof. 

ALBERT.  One  day  after  a  heavy  rainfall,  I  lifted  up  a 
stone  and  there  lay  one  hundred  and  fifty  Carpenters  in 
the  mud.  They  looked  like  tiny  horses  lying  down  on  their 
sides  asleep — even  their  heads  were  lying  on  the  ground. 

CECIL.  They  may  have  been  asleep  or  just  dormant 
from  the  wet  and  cold. 

ALBERT.  After  the  sun  shone  on  them  five  minutes, 
some  began  to  wake  up  and  these  soon  rooted  around 
among  the  others.  In  a  little  while  all  were  awake  and 
ran  down  a  hole. 


206       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

DOROTHY.  I  suppose  it  was  too  late  in  the  season  for 
babies. 

ALBERT.  Yes,  but  one  year  in  late  November  I  saw  the 
same  kind  of  a  thing:,  and  that  time  there  was  a  bunch  of 
babies  stuck  together  and  lying  in  the  mud.  An  ant 
grabbed  the  bunch  and  took  it  along.  Of  course,  the  nest 
had  been  flooded  and  the  ants  had  climbed  up  out  of  the 
water. 

FLORENCE.     I  wonder  if  they  didn't  take  cold? 

ALBERT.  That  time  I  lifted  the  stone  twice  a  day  for 
three  days,  with  the  same  result  each  time,  and  still  the 
mud  hadn't  dried  under  it, 

FLORENCE.    Did  you  ever  learn  how  long  ants  sleep  ? 

CECIL.  About  three  hours  a  day.  Some  may  work 
while  others  sleep.  Sometimes  the  workers  run  over  those 
ants  that  are  snoozing  and  jostle  them  around,  but  the 
sleepy  ones  don't  make  as  much  fuss  about  it  as  you  would. 
The  big-headed  ones  are  the  most  sluggish  and  hardest  to 
wake. 

DOROTHY.    How  does  an  ant  act  when  it  wakes  up? 

CECIL.  Just  like  you  do — yawns,  opens  its  jaws,  sticks 
out  its  tongue,  stretches  its  legs,  bathes  and  combs. 

ALBERT.  One  night  the  seven  colonies  of  Carpenters 
were  all  mining.  When  I  would  place  my  finger  near  a 
door,  the  ants  would  run  away  from  home  instead  of 
toward  it.  They  didn't  want  to  show  me  where  the  nest 
was. 

FLORENCE.  They  often  hide  their  nests.  They  never 
clear  the  wreeds  away.  We  must  remember  where  their 
homes  are  or  we  can't  find  them  next  summer. 

DOROTHY.  I  saw  some  Carpenters  and  sow  bugs  ex- 
change calls  today. 


CARPENTERS,  HARVESTERS        207 

CECIL.  And  vet  these  ants  have  two  or  three  kinds  of 
ammunition,  and  it  may  be  acid,  alkali,  both,  or  neither. 

KENNETH.  I  dropped  a  Carpenter  on  a  snail  and  it 
got  quite  a  ride  before  it  could  grab  a  weed  and  pull  itself 
loose. 

ALBERT.  I  dropped  a  snail  on  the  loose  dirt  at  the 
door  of  the  Carpenters.  It  was  twelve  hours  going  seven 
inches,  and  then  stalled.  It  quit  when  it  had  used  up  all 
its  track  material. 

KENNETH.  Yes,  the  war  tanks  were  not  the  first  to 
lay  their  tracks  as  they  need  them.  The  snail  always  does. 
The  tank  can  pick  its  track  up  and  use  it  again,  but  the 
poor  snail  can't.  It  hasn't  a  fair  show. 


Carpenter  Taking  a  Hide. 

CECIL.  You  see,  the  snail  belongs  in  the  water,  but  was 
bound  to  be  a  land  animal,  and  so  has  to  wet  its  track 
before  it  can  crawl.  The  slime  on  the  slug  and  snail  may 
also  be  used  to  keep  other  animals  away. 

FLORENCE.     Is  the  snail  lazy,  or  just  sleepy? 

CECIL.  Sleepy,  I  guess.  In  the  British  Museum  a  snail 
came  to  after  being  glued  to  a  board  four  years,  and  then 
lived  two  years  longer. 

FLORENCE.  As  our  ants  won't  come  out,  there's 
nothing  to  talk  about,  so  go  on  about  the  snail  or  something 
else — sow  bugs. 

CECIL.  As  the  sow  bug  is  really  a  water  animal,  too, 
like  the  shellfish,  it  has  to  have  damp  air  to  breathe.  So  it 


208       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

lives  in  damp  places.  Once  I  couldn't  get  water  through 
our  lawn  hose  and  I  found  one  end  plugged  up  with  sow 
bugs.  The  sense  of  touch  is  mainly  located  in  its  feelers, 
as  are  the  senses  of  hearing  and  smell.  It  can  taste,  al- 
though it  has  no  tongue. 

ALBERT.  It  holds  with  its  feet  and  tears  with  its  jaws. 
Some  kinds  can  roll  up  like  an  armadillo,  but  the  ones 
around  here  don't. 

DOROTHY.  Since  the  rains,  nearly  every  stone  has 
several  different  animals  living  under  it.  I  suppose  many 
of  them  have  been  deep  in  the  ground,  where  it  is  damp, 
through  the  dry  season. 

CECIL.  I  saw  twelve  Longlegs  going  in  and  out  of  a 
nest  of  sow  bugs. 

ALBERT.  Well,  it's  the  middle  of  March,  and  it's  rained 
three  inches  within  the  last  week — a  regular  flood  that 
has  done  much  damage.  The  earth  cracks  are  full  of  water 
for  the  first  time  this  year.  All  ants'  nests  around  here  are 
flooded  except  ours  and  Longlegs. 

CECIL.  The  drowned  will  soon  come  to  after  the  water 
drains  off. 

FLORENCE.  Some  sow  bugs  and  snails  were  crawling 
along  on  the  bottom  of  a  puddle.  A  cricket  jumped  into  a 
little  pond,  but  was  a  fine  swimmer.  He  is  my  pet  cricket, 
even  if  he  is  a  cripple,  and  has  but  one  big  leg.  I  know 
where  he  lives. 

KENNETH.  Those  you  saw  were  slugs,  Out  there  are 
real  snails  around  here,  and  they  do  much  damage  to 
gardens.  Each  carries  its  house  on  its  back 

FLORENCE.  I  put  some  walnut,  almond  and  squash  seed 
in  the  sun-parlor  but  was  disappointed  when  I  found  thirty 
Acrobats  in  the  room  eating  squash  seed  and  only  two  of 
our  ants  were  present.  The  Acrobats  go  into  a  neighbor's 


CARPENTERS,  HARVESTERS        209 

house  and  take  anything  they  want  without  asking  for  it. 
No  wonder  our  ants  don't  return  their  calls. 

ALBERT.  What  do  you  think?  It's  April  6th  and  our 
ants  are  laying  eggs.  I  removed  the  tin  roof  quickly  today 
and  about  700  ants  and  six  bunches  of  eggs,  with  about 
thirty  in  a  bunch,  lay  before  me.  The  ants  grabbed  the 
eggs  and  ran.  I  counted  the  number  in  one  bunch. 

KENNETH.  I  counted  eight  slugs  that  had  run  out  of 
track  material  and  were  stranded  on  the  sidewalk  this 
morning  to  be  roasted  in  the  sun. 

DOROTHY.  These  things  have  lived  two  weeks  under  a 
stone : 

1  cricket — Florence's  pet. 
6  sow  bugs — nobody's  pets. 

200  of  the  Dwarf  ants. 

Other  animals  often  called  as  visitors. 

KENNETH.    Our  ants  are  beginning  to  come  out  a  little, 

but  they're  not  working  to  speak  of.  I  ran  a  straw  through 
the  closed  door  and  pulled  it  out  with  two  workers  hang- 
ing to  it.  They  let  go  and  took  some  pieces  of  walnut  into 
the  house.  Then  other  ants  carried  in  all  the  rest. 

ALBERT.  I  want  to  prove  the  Acrobats  are  fighters. 
For  some  reason  they  don't  want  any  other  ant  around  the 
black  acacia  tree,  but  a  big  Carpenter  got  too  close.  My 
picture  shows  the  result. 

FLORENCE.  Were  the  five  Acrobats  all  on  one  side  of 
the  big  ant? 

KENNETH.  No.  Two  of  them  had  clasped  the  legs  just 
opposite  those  shown  in  the  picture.  Although  the  Car- 
penter had  killed  these  Acrobats,  she  soon  died  also.  The 
jaws  of  E  had  closed  on  a  feeler  of  D,  by  mistake,  of 
course.  The  jaws  of  A,  C  and  D  had  clasped  the  joints  of 
the  legs  for  good  reasons.  No  Acrobat  had  tackled  a  fore- 
leg. Wonder  why? 


210       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

CECIL.  Our  ants  made  their  first  trip  on  the  trail  on 
April  8th — about  three  months  after  they  housed  up  for 
the  winter  (January  13th)  and  one  month  after  they  began 
to  lay  eggs.  They  are  mining  now,  making  room  for  the 
babies  and  young  ants.  The  eggs  are  now  hatching  (a 
month  later  than  last  year). 

FLORENCE.     Some  time  ago  you  handled  and  counted 


A  B 

Five  Acrobats  Killing  a  Big  Carpenter. 

A — Head  with  one  feeler. 

B — Ant  with  one  leg  and  one  feeler. 

C — Head  and  body  with  no  legs  and  one  feeler. 

1) — Head  with  one  feeler. 

E — Four  legs  and  no  abdomen. 

a  bunch  of  eggs  that  were  in  the  second  story  of  the  sun- 
parlor. 

ALBERT.  Yes,  and  then  the  ants  filled  that  room  with 
dirt  and  never  used  it  again.  I  removed  one  story  of  the 
sun-parlor  not  long  ago. 

FLORENCE.  One  day  you  grabbed  your  umbrella  and 
ran  out  to  see  what  our  ants  were  doing.  They'd  been 
caught  out  in  a  hard  shower.  They  seem  to  like  a  drizzle, 
but  this  was  different. 

ALBERT.  Those  about  the  door  didn't  go  in  for  a  time. 
Those  on  the  trail  started  for  the  door  and  a  few  reached 
it.  A  hundred  crept  under  shelters.  Some  stopped  on  a 


CARPENTERS,  HARVESTERS 


211 


stone  and  were  beaten  down  and  gave  up — lay  under  water 
without  moving. 

DOROTHY.     And  the  others? 

ALBERT.  About  twenty-five  stood  upright  like  a  boy 
and  kept  still.  After  the  rain  those  that  didn't  get  wet 
ran  home.  Others  waited  until  after  the  water  dried  out 
of  their  feelers,  or  until  the  puddles  dried  up. 


One  Harvester  Helping  Another  to  Remove   a  Drop   of  Water  from 
Under  the  Throat. 

DOROTHY.     That's  all,  is  it? 

ALBERT.  No.  One  of  the  upright  ants  had  a  ball  of 
water  under  its  chin  and  had  trouble  for  half  an  hour.  Its 
feelers  would  get  tangled  in  the  water  as  fast  as  the  ant 
pulled  them  out  with  the  comb  on  its  forelegs. 


212       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

DOROTHY.  Why  didn't  the  other  ants  help  the  one  in 
trouble  ? 

ALBERT.  They  did.  A  passing  ant  stopped,  reared  up, 
put  its  jaws  on  the  drop  of  water,  and  some  of  it  stuck,  for 
I  could  see  it  glisten  on  the  helper's  jaws.  Then  two 
more  ants  did  exactly  the  same  thing,  except  I  didn't  see 
any  water  on  their  jaws. 

DOROTHY.     At  last,  what? 

ALBERT.  The  ball  of  water  was  soon  gone,  the  feelers 
combed  out,  and  the  ant  went  home. 

KENNETH.  They  say  the  native  Mexicans  use  ants  as 
weather  prophets. 

DOROTHY.  It  would  take  a  good  prophet  to  prophesy 
a  California  shower. 

ALBERT.  Where  have  all  the  frogs  and  toads  been 
since  last  year? 

CECIL.  Oh,  they're  all  right.  They've  been  asleep  down 
in  the  ground,  many  of  them — at  least  through  the  winter. 
They'll  soon  be  serenading  you  again  over  at  the  pond. 

ALBERT.     But  toads  don't  live  in  the  pond. 

CECIL.  No,  but  they  are  now  coming  to  the  pond  to 
lay  eggs — coming  from  as  far  as  two  miles.  Slow  journey. 
A  toad  will  walk  a  few  inches  and  then  stop  to  rest.  Some- 
times they  travel  on  the  dangerous  highway.  When  the 
celebration  is  over,  each  toad  leaves  her  tadpoles  to  hustle 
for  themselves  and  plods  her  weary  way  back  to  her  old 
home. 

White  Ants,  or  Termites. 

FLORENCE.  I  set  an  ant-like  insect  down  on  the 
ground  and  she  walked  away  from  her  wings.  I  saw 
another  one  leave  her  wings  in  a  knot  hole  the  other  day. 
She  seemed  to  wipe  them  off  with  her  legs.  She  could 
curve  her  abdomen  up  over  her  back,  too. 


ANT  AND  FLORENCE.    EYESIGHT  213 

CECIL.  These  were  white  ants,  or  termites.  They're 
not  real  ants  at  all.  They  have  wingless  workers  and  sol- 
diers. A  soldier  has  a  head  nearly  as  long  as  all  the  rest 
of  the  insect.  The  larvae  are  called  wood  worms  because 
they  live  in  wood,  but  I  don't  know  where  these  around 
here  live. 

FLORENCE.    Have  you  seen  any  of  these  white  ants? 

CECIL.  Once  in  November  I  saw  a  dozen  colonies 
swarm,  and  they  came  out  of  earth  cracks  on  the  school 
ground  or  along  a  bare  footpath.  Some  of  the  soldiers  and 
workers  were  out  to  encourage  the  winged  royalty  to  make 
the  venture  into  the  sky. 

KENNETH.  A  colony  of  Robbers  came  up  near  the 
swarming  termites,  but  left  because  a  lot  of  children  came 
running  up.  I'd  like  to  know  why  these  White  ants  made 
their  nest  in  such  bare,  hard-packed  ground.  On  the  school 
ground — of  all  places! 

Ant  and  Florence.    Eyesight. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  Ant,  it's  some  time  since  we  had  a 
chat.  You  jumped  a  half  inch  again,  when  I  dropped  a 
Carpenter  near  you.  I  suppose  you  screamed,  too. 

ANT.  That  ant  is  eight  times  as  big  as  I  am  and  you 
are  2,000  times  as  large  as  a  mouse  that  can  make  you 
scream  and  jump  onto  the  table.  If  you  had  the  muscles 
of  a  flea  you  could  jump  two  miles.  Let  me  see  you  spring 
twice  your  length.  I  jumped  twice  mine. 

FLORENCE.  Flies  don't  get  closer  to  you  than  half  an 
inch  when  you  are  both  eating  sugar. 

ANT.     Sorry,  but  I  can't  say  so  much  for  you. 

FLORENCE.  You  are  eight  times  as  big  as  the  Garden 
ant,  but  it  can  run  twice  as  fast  as  you. 

ANT.  There  goes  a  rabbit.  Let  me  see  you  catch  it. 
Why,  you  can't  catch  a  flea. 


•214       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  You  know  the  African  Ant  Lion  has  a 
neck  twice  as  long  as  its  body.  Well,  yours  is  too  slim, 
but  it's  not  as  long  as  that  ant  lion's. 

ANT.  My  neck  is  all  right.  See?  I  can  turn  my  head 
sixty  degrees  to  the  right  or  left.  You  think  you  can  turn 
your  nose  around  even  with  your  shoulder,  but  you  can't. 

FLORENCE.     You  just  think  you  are  smart, 

ANT.  You  just  think  you  know  as  much  as  your  par- 
ents, but  I've  always  known  about  as  much  as  mine  ever 
since  I  began  to  do  regular  work.  Why,  the  first  time  I 
tried  to  work  I  did  it  about  as  well  as  I  do  now. 

FLORENCE.     It  must  be  great  to  be  born  wise. 

ANT.  Don't  you  wish  you  were  an  ant?  Then  you 
wouldn't  have  to  go  to  school  at  all. 

FLORENCE.  I  wish  you  would  stay  out  of  our  cup- 
board. 

ANT.  Not  guilty.  Our  ants  never  bother  the  home  of 
man.  But  why  do  you  object?  Down  in  some  parts  of 
South  America  the  people  welcome  a  drove  of  ants — even 
move  out  to  let  them  clean  house.  Yes,  they  even  let  the 
ants  clean  their  clothes  of  vermin. 

FLORENCE.  Thank  you.  Our  house  isn't  in  need  of 
any  such  visit. 

ANT.  You  are  quite  willing  to  visit  our  home,  but  don't 
want  the  visits  returned,  it  appears. 

FLORENCE.  You  try  to  deceive  me.  Sometimes  you 
pretend  to  sting  me  when  you  haven't  any  stinger  at  all. 
I  even  doubt  if  you  have  any  formic  acid,  and  a  stinger 
without  poison  would  be  like  a  gun  without  a  bullet. 

ANT.  What  did  you  paste  one  of  our  ants  down  with 
cooked  squash  for? 

FLORENCE.  When  I  did  that  a  hundred  ants  jumped 
and  ran  in  every  direction,  as  if  hunting  for  the  enemy, 


ANT  AND  FLORENCE.     EYESIGHT  215 

but  not  one  helped  the  captive  to  escape.  Finally  it  got 
loose  itself. 

ANT.     Don't  you  think  we  always  play  fair? 

FLORENCE.  I  don't  know  about  that.  One  of  your 
ants  bit  the  feet  of  another,  took  a  seed  away  from  her, 
and  carried  it  home — maybe  to  get  the  credit. 

ANT.  I  can't  make  out  whether  it  is  a  case  of  nerve  or 
nerves  with  you. 

FLORENCE.  Your  claws  are  no  good  for  you  often  slip 
off  that  smooth  stone  by  your  door.  Why  not  take  a  course 
of  ten  lessons  from  the  fly? 

ANT.  Of  course,  mining  wears  out  our  claws  and  the 
oil  and  wax  on  our  feet  don't  stick  very  well  to  dusty 
walls.  But  I  can  walk  up  clean  glass,  as  I've  told  you 
before.  You've  seen  me  walk  up  the  inside  of  bottles. 

CECIL.  Judging  from  your  fine  looking  eyes  and  the 
splendid  wings  of  your  kings  and  queens,  ants  must  have 
lived  outdoors  some  time  in  the  dim  past,  and  all  had 
wings.  But  with  touch  and  odor,  maybe  you  can  now  get 
as  good  an  image  of  an  object  as  you  once  could  when  your 
eyes  could  see. 

ANT.    Keep  on  talking,  if  it  will  make  Florence  stop. 

CECIL.  How  do  we  know  but  ants  have  flashlights  or 
lanterns  in  their  feelers?  We  don't  use  the  same  part  of 
our  eyes  in  a  darkened  room  that  we  use  In  strong  light. 
I  went  to  the  movies  today,  and  was  blind  to  objects  in  the 
room  for  a  time.  Then  I  could  see  everything.  The  images 
had  to  be  shifted  to  new  curtains  in  my  eyes  before  I  could 
see,  and  it  took  time.  There's  a  lot  that  man  doesn't  know 
yet,  even  about  himself. 


216       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

April  20  to  June  13. 

Our  Ants  Have  a  Second  Battle  With  the  Eyeless  Robbers. 

ALBERT.  I'm  glad  you're  all  here.  Last  evening  Flor- 
ence, two  other  persons  and  myself  visited  our  ants  to  find 
them  having  another  aAvful  battle  with  the  eyeless  Robbers. 
You  know  they  killed  many  of  ours  in  driving  them  away 
from  the  telephone  pole. 

FLORENCE.  The  Robbers  came  in  overland  and  the 
fighting  was  done  on  top  of  the  ground  this  time. 

ALBERT.  It  was  one  of  the  most  wonderful  sights  I 
ever  saw.  Our  2,000  ants  piled  themselves  up  in  two 
embankments  reaching  clear  around  the  door  of  the  nest. 
These  circular  banks  of  ants  looked  like  two  black  ropes 
stretched  around  the  door — one  inside  the  other. 

KENNETH.  I've  read  of  men  throwing  up  banks  of  dirt 
in  battle,  but  not  banks  of  men. 

ALBERT.  These  ropes  of  ants  were  over  half  an  inch 
high,  where  the  shock  attack  was  made  on  them,  except  at 
three  points  in  the  outer  wall  of  ants.  At  these  points 
three  gates  were  left  open  for  some  reason.  These  gates 
made  me  think  of  ambush,  tra^s,  shortage  of  ants,  way  of 
escape  with  .babies,  division  of  work  between  the  two  lines 
of  battle,  bad  generalship — but  I  didn't  discover  their  cause 
or  use. 

FLORENCE.  Only  a  few  Robbers  went  through  the 
gates.  I  guess  they  didn't  know  about  them.  I  think  our 


THE  ANTS  FIGHT  THE  EYELESS  ROBBERS     217 

ants  made  their  circles  a  little  too  big  or  too  high,  and  so 
ran  out  of  ants. 

ALBERT.  Ours  didn't  go  after  the  Robbers,  but  would 
wait  until  the  enemy  would  run  into  the  rope  of  ants. 
Then  ours  would  pull  the  murderers  into  the  wall  of  ants 
and  smash  them — a  dozen  of  ours  against  one  of  theirs, 
you  see. 

FLORENCE.     No  Robber  could  reach  the  door  without 


Battle  Between  Black  Harvesters  and  Robber   (Ecitons)   Ants. 
Diagram.     June  3. 

going  through  or  over  two  banks  of  our  ants,  and  very  few 
could  do  so.  Great  scheme  on  the  part  of  our  ants,  wasn't  it? 
FLORENCE.     Albert,  you  explain  my  picture. 
ALBERT. 

A — Robber  ants  (Ecitons)  in  great  numbers  making  an 
attack,  their  object  being  robbery,  murder,  and  espe- 
cially kidnapping  babies. 

B,  D,  I  and  J — Black  Harvesters  that  have  come  out 


218       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

of  Iheir  nest  and  built  two  circular  walls  of  their  own 
bodies.  They  seem  to  need  reinforcement  at  H.  There 
are  about  2,000  ants  in  these  walls.  Notice  this  plan 
amounts  to  a  first  and  second  line  of  defense. 

C — Quite   a  number   of   Robbers   readied   C,   but  very 
few  got  as  far  as  E,  F,  G. 

F — The  doorway.    H — The  three  openings  in  the  outer 
wall,  use  unknown.     This  battle  was  a  sight,  and  I  sup- 
pose one  not  often  seen.     What  general  gave  the  com- 
mand for  the  formation  of  these  embankments  of  blind 
ants,  and  for  the  distribution  of  ants? 
FLORENCE.      There   was   no   panic,   no   haste   in   using 
jaws,  no  undue  excitement  on  the -part  of  our  ants.     They 
would  injure  themselves  worse  than  the  enemy  by  a  reck- 
less use  of  their  strong,  grass-hook,  scissor  jaws.     Do  you 
see  that  this  would  be  so  ? 

ALBERT.  Ours  seemed  to  keep  their  feelers  buried  in 
the  banks  of  ants. 

FLORENCE.  There  were  many  more  of  the  enemy  than 
of  ours,  but  an  attacking  ant  had  to  run  through  or  over 
an  embankment  of  ours  before  it  could  get  to  the  door. 
See  the  idea?  I'm  proud  of  our  ants.  I  thought  they 
were  farmers  and  hadn't  studied  out  any  plans  for  a  battle. 
Let's  make  them  a  flag  and  keep  it  hoisted  on  their  battle 
grounds. 

ALBERT.  It  was  great  to  see  so  many  of  the  enemy 
moving  into  the  bank  of  ants  to  disappear.  But  finally  a 
few  scaled  the  walls  and  entered  the  nest.  It  was  so  dark 
we  could  hardly  see  and  we  became  more  excited  than  our 
ants,  fearing  the  babies  in  the  house  were  not  guarded  and 
Avould  be  kidnapped. 

FLORENCE.  Yes,  and  then  AVC  jumped  on  the  enemy 
and  tramped  a  lot  of  them  to  death — maybe  five  hundred. 


THE  ANTS  FIGHT  THE  EYELESS  ROBBERS     219 

This  caused  the  Robbers  to  stop  the  attack,  and,  as  it  was 
dark,  we  skipped  for  home. 

CECIL.     Then  you  don't  know  how  the  battle  ended? 

ALBERT.  Yes,  we  found  that  out  this  morning  when 
we  saw  our  undertakers  carrying  about  a  hundred  of  our 
ants  to  the  cemetery. 

DOROTHY.     And  not  a  Robber  killed? 

ALBERT.  Not  so  fast.  Ours  had  piled  three  hundred 
dead  Robbers  in  a  circle  around  the  door. 

DOROTHY.     Good  news  from  the  front. 

ALBERT.  And  that  isn't  all.  They  are  still  working  at 
it,  and  have  now  piled  nine  hundred  bodies  of  the  enemy 
ir.  a  circle  around  the  door — all  that  we  killed  and  all  that 
they  killed. 

FLORENCE.  Yes.  The  dead  were  so  thick  on  the 
ground  that  their  legs  got  tangled  and  one  of  our  ants 
could  carry  a  whole  bunch  at  a  time.  Great  fun.  Some- 
times an  ant  would  pick  up  a  bunch  of  Robbers  that  didn't 
need  moving,  stick  her  head  up  in  the  air,  and  trot  around 
for  sport. 

ALBERT.  Several  days  now  since  the  fight.  Ours  close 
the  doors  with  dead  Robbers  through  the  heat  of  the  day, 
and  pile  them  in  a  ring  around  the  door  at  night.  Owing 
to  the  wind,  hungry  animals  or  something,  the  number  of 
bodies  is  gradually  growing  less  (200  still  remained  a  month 
after  the  battle).  Maybe  our  ants  are  eating  them;  I  don't 
know.  Their  bodies  don't  fall  to  pieces  for  some  reason,  as 
do  the  bodies  of  our  ants  and  of  the  Carpenters. 

KENNETH.  "What  in  the  Sam  Hill  did  our  ants  pile 
nine  hundred  dead  Robbers  around  the  door  for? 

CECIL.  I  don't  know.  But  if  the  Robbers  should  send 
;i  scout  down  to  that  door  to  investigate,  would  it  be  likely 
to  advise  another  attack?  Not  on  vour  life. 


220      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ALBERT.  As  I  just  said,  maybe  the  bodies  are  kept  for 
food.  Moulds  and  bacteria  don't  seem  to  attack  them.  Ours 
carry  home  the  bodies  of  the  Carpenter  and  other  insects 
for  food.  Why  not  eat  the  Robbers? 

DOROTHY.  Why  may  the  bodies  not  be  left  for  little 
Horny,  so  he  won't  eat  ours — or  be  left  as  scarecrows? 

KENNETH.  Another  colony  of  Harvesters  has  been 
driven  from  home  or  moved  of  its  own  accord,  and  the 
Longlegs  have  moved  into  the  vacated  nest,  same  as  they 
did  when  ours  were  chased  from  their  nest  at  the  telephone 
pole. 

DOROTHY.  Ours  never  piled  the  Robbers  anywhere  but 
around  the  door,  except  once  when  they  put  a  hundred  of 
them  in  a  can  lid  for  a  day. 

FLORENCE.  The  next  morning  after  the  battle  I  saw 
two  winged  queens  and  eleven  kings  walking  over  the 
battlefield.  Once  before  I  counted  eight  of  our  winged 
queens  and  thirty-four  kings  that  were  out  on  the  yard 
taking  exercise.  I  saw  the  first  winged  Harvester  queen  in 
May.  It  was  two  months  after  we  saw  the  first  eggs — time 
enough  to  hatch  and  grow  up. 

KENNETH.  Sometimes,  I  suppose,  a  single  ant  may 
start  a  battle  that  causes  the  death  of  hundreds. 

FLORENCE.  How  about  man?  Only  it's  millions  of 
deaths,  instead  of  hundreds.  Ant  or  man  may  start  a  battle 
without  any  good  cause.  Ants  have  civil  war,  too,  the 
same  as  man.  Judging  from  ants,  it'll  be  a  long  time  before 
we  learn  to  do  without  war. 

ALBERT.  There's  this  difference  in  the  battles  of  ants 
and  men — the  soldiers  of  ants  never  rebel  and  overthrow 
the  government.  When  food  is  scarce,  the  workers  of  some 
ants  are  not  afraid  to  eat  their  soldiers. 


QUEENS,  EGGS,  NESTS,  ACROBATS  221 

KENNETH.  I  suppose  an  ant  wouldn't  trade  its  jaws 
for  a  war-club,  battle-ax  and  sword. 

CECIL.  I  wonder  if  the  ants  and  cannibals  that  at- 
tacked Stanley's  men  in  Africa  didn't  each  do  so  for  the 
same  reason?  Stanley  says  that  ants  kill  monkeys  and 
snakes,  and  "our  fowl  and  pigs." 

DOROTHY.  Some  of  our  ants  were  wounded  and  some 
killed  in  the  late  battle.  I  wonder  what  an  ant  would  do 
with  an  injured  limb? 

CECIL.  I  don't  know,  but  a  pet  chipmunk  in  Sacra- 
mento skinned  its  tail  on  the  wires  of  its  cage.  The  bone 
stuck  up  like  a  red  wire.  The  munk  looked  at  it,  didn't 
like  it,  and  then  bit  it  off.  After  that  they  called  him 
Bobby. 

KENNETH.  About  dusk  today  I  saw  a  line  of  Robbers 
crossing  a  trail  of  Harvesters  like  ours.  Neither  paid  any 
attention  to  the  other. 

Queens,  Eggs,  Nests,  Acrobats. 

FLORENCE.  How  many  queens  in  an  ant  colony,  any- 
how? 

ANT.    The  number  varies  from  one  or  a  few  to  hundreds. 

FLORENCE.  Your  queens  are  quite  lively.  I  have  seen 
them  at  work  a  number  of  times. 

ANT.  Why,  some  ants  even  let  their  queens  go  out  on 
the  trail  'with  their  workers. 

FLORENCE.  Once  last  fall  a  quarter  of  an  apricot 
lasted  your  ants  three  days.  I  saw  a  king  hold  its  mouth 
to  that  fruit  for  three  and  a  half  minutes  and  then  drink 
some  water  for  two  minutes. 

DOROTHY.  Yes,  and  I  saw  a  queen  drink  for  a  min- 
ute. I  thought  kings  and  queens  had  to  be  fed  and  watered 
by  their  servants. 


222       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  If  you  have  eggs  in  the  house  about  all 
the  time  I  should  think  you  would  get  the  old  ones  and  the 
new  ones  all  mixed  up — and  the  old  and  new  babies,  too. 

ANT.  We  can  tell  all  about  our  old  and  new  babies  and 
eggs  when  our  feelers  touch  them  (contact-odor).  So  we 
keep  those  of  the  same  age  piled  or  stuck  together,  whether 
we  keep  different  ages  in  the  same  closet  or  not,  Often  we 
stick  eggs  of  the  same  age  together  in  bunches  and  the 
babies,  too,  sometimes. 

FLORENCE.  Like  our  teacher.  She  doesn't  get  the 
different  classes  mixed. 

DOROTHY.  Why  do  some  ants  cover  seeds  with  saliva 
before  feeding  them  to  babies? 

ANT.  Why  do  the  women  of  some  countries  chew  food 
before  giving  it  to  their  babies? 

DOROTHY.  You  are  blockading  your  door  with  stones 
today  for  a  change. 

FLORENCE.  A  dozen  injured  Acrobats  were  left  at 
your  door  and  their  sisters  began  to  rescue  them.  Some  of 
our  ants  stepped  too  close  and  the  jaws  of  the  injured  ants 
clinched  the  legs  of  our  ants.  Ours  cut  their  heads  off,  but 
that  didn't  do  any  good. 

DOROTHY.  Your  nest  is  so  close  I'd  think  you'd 
smother. 

ANT.  Why,  you  can  name  a  number  of  large  animals 
that  have  homes  in  the  ground. 

Mining,  Trails,  Work. 

FLORENCE.  Some  of  your  closets  have  low  ceilings. 
Can  you  lie  on  your  side  while  mining? 

A  XT.  Yes.  Even  stand  on  the  ceiling  if  I  waul  to.  I 
use  my  claws  and  jaws  mainly  in  mining. 

FLORENCE.     When  we  first   found  your  colony,  you  had 


MINING,  TRAILS,  WORK  223 

mined  about  a  gallcn  of  dirt.    How  long  would  it  take  you 
to    do   that? 

CECIL.  Let  me  tell  you.  A  gallon  would  be  about 
500,000  loads — 500  loads  apiece  for  a  thousand  miners. 
Maybe  fifty  days'  work  if  the  dirt  be  dry  and  the  mining 
hard.  But  if  the  ground  be  wet  and  soft,  the  ants  could 
make  earth  balls  much  easier  and  carry  out  a  gallon  in  a 
few  days. 

ANT.  When  the  earth  is  damp,  we  stick  about  a  dozen 
scraperfuls  (jawfuls)  together  into  a  ball  or  earth  pellet, 
and  carry  it  out.  When  the  dirt  is  dry,  we  don't  go  to 
that  bother,  but  carry  it  out  loose  in  our  baskets  (jaws). 
We'd  soon  run  out  of  saliva  if  we  tried  to  stick  much  dry 
dirt  together. 

FLORENCE.  Every  night  you  knock  the  pellets  off, 
making  a  trail  through  them  in  the  direction  of  your  seed 
field.  They  crumble  easily.  How  many  trips  did  each 
Harvester  make  last  night? 

ANT.  I  don't  know.  Ants  were  on  the  trail  sixteen 
hours.  Say,  five  minutes  going,  the  same  time  finding  a 
seed,  and  twenty-five  returning  home. 

CECIL.  I  suppose  they  work  in  shifts,  and  don't  work 
overtime  unless  there  is  a  reason  for  it. 

FLORENCE.  I  notice  the  ants  don't  work  outside  dur- 
ing eight  hours  in  daytime ;  at  least,  in  hot  weather. 

ANT.  And  I  notice  that  you  don't  work  outside  during 
eight  hours  at  night,  in  any  kind  of  weather. 

FLORENCE.  The  boys  sleep  eight  hours  at  night,  and 
as  much  longer  as  possible,  and  eat  three  times  a  day,  and 
as  much  oftener  as  possible. 

KENNETH.  Our  ants  have  a  rule  not  to  work  through 
the  heat  of  the  day,  but  they  break  it  when  there  is  a  rush 


224      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

order  for  a  new  home,  when  a  new  grain  field  is  discovered 
in  famine  times,  and  Avhen  war  is  threatened. 

Longlegs,  Food,  Instinct. 

ALBERT.  The  Long-legs  don't  seem  to  annoy  our  ants 
except  after  ours  have  had  a  battle  or  other  hard  luck. 
Neither  do  ours  bother  them.  Still,  I  once  saw  six  of  our 
ants  and  six  Acrobats  enjoying  a  piece  of  fruit  on  which 
two  Longlegs  lay  dead. 

DOROTHY.  Our  ants  wouldn't  eat  some  cheese  until 
two  days  after  I  gave  it  to  them. 

CECIL.  Once  a  squash  seed  wouldn't  go  in  a  small  door, 
so  the  ants  pulled  it  out  and  took  it  around  to  a  large 
door. 

KENNETH.  And  once  a  large  seed  got  stuck  between 
two  stones  and  the  ants  pulled  it  back  and  took  it  around 
another  way. 

ANT.  People  call  this  instinct  when  I  do  it  and  intelli- 
gence when  you  do  it.  Much  of  what  you  call  intelligence  is 
instinct,  I  guess. 

CECIL.  As  I  was  sprinkling  the  lawn  last  evening,  I 
threw  some  radish  tops  on  the  cement  walk.  When  I 
removed  them  this  morning  there  were  the  five  hundred 
Fire  ants  we  found  stranded  on  that  cold  pavement  one 
morning.  They  grabbed  their  three  hundred  pupae  and 
rushed  to  safety.  I  suppose  some  of  the  water  had  gotten 
into  their  nursery. 

FLORENCE.  I  poured  some  water  on  the  ground  and 
2,000  ants  came  out  to  drink  again.  Albert  came  along, 
bent  over  the  ants,  and  whispered :  '  'Get  into  the  house, 
quick,  or  the  Black  Man  will  get  you — all  of  you — quick!" 

CECIL.     Ha,  ha,  ha! 

FLORENCE.     They  all  rushed  for  the  door  at  the  same 


CARPENTERS  225 

time,  and  there  was  a  panic.  They  couldn't  get  in  and  the 
2,000  ants  piled  up  an  inch  high.  Albert  won't  tell  how  he 
did  this. 

CECIL.  He  simply  blew  his  breath  on  them  a  little. 
They  knew  they  were  running  an  awful  risk  to  expose 
their  whole  colony  to  some  enemy  at  the  same  time,  and  so 
were  easily  thrown  into  a  panic. 

FLORENCE.  The  Carpenters  would  never  run  such 
risks. 

Carpenters. 

DOROTHY.  Well,  look  at  that  Carpenter  Albert  has 
caught !  It's  pumping  balls  of  honey-dew  from  its  craw 
back  between  its  jaws  and  the  boy  is  actually  eating  them. 

ALBERT.  Why,  you  eat  honey,  don't  you,  after  the  bees 
have  swallowed  it?  I'm  playing  Indian. 

DOROTHY.  I  saw  a  big  Carpenter  dying  in  a  rose 
bloom  and  a  wounded  bee  lay  helpless  in  another  a  few 
inches  away.  Draw  your  own  conclusion. 

CECIL.  While  the  Carpenters  always  leave  home  one 
at  a  time  and  travel  alone,  I  have  seen  as  many  as  fifty 
come  out  of  the  house  in  a  minute  about  dark.  Once  I 
lifted  a  can  lid  about  dusk,  and  twenty  of  them  were 
under  it. 

FLORENCE.  A  few  Carpenters  ventured  out  of  the 
house  today  and  some  small  chickens  captured  them. 

KENNETH.  Within  the  last  year  I  have  seen  a  colony 
of  Carpenters  carry  home  in  daytime  a  dead  sister,  a  sow 
bug,  two  flies,  a  maggot  and  a  chunk  of  dirt.  Most  of  this 
was  for  babies,  no  doubt,  as  they  eat  almost  anything. 

ALBERT.  •  One  morning  I  found  a  dozen  wounded  Car- 
penters on  the  garage  floor.  Many  were  helpless.  Very 
few  could  run  and  hide.  I  think  their  colony  had  been 


226      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

attacked   and  whipped  by  something,   and,   of   course,  my 
guess  is  Robbers,  as  they  will  attack  any  other  ant. 

CECIL.  Those  driven  from  home  make  me  think  of 
"The  Man  Without  a  Country."  The  number  of  wounded 
ones  make  me  think  of  the  many  dangers  of  ant  life. 

When  Ants  Are  Killed.    Health  Officers.    Inspectors. 

DOROTHY.  You  don't  pay  any  attention  to  ants  that 
are  run  over  in  the  alley  by  autos,  yet  you  will  work  for 
days  to  rescue  the  body  of  a  sister  from  the  nest  of  some 
other  ant.  I  guess  you  have  gotten  used  to  the  deaths  that 
happen  by  accident,  I  suppose  you  have  babies  enough  to 
more  than  take  the  places  of  those  that  are  killed. 

ANT.  As  many  die  or  are  killed  as  are  hatched,  or  else 
there  would  soon  be  too  many  Harvesters  011  earth.  There 
are  too  many  of  some  kinds  of  ants  now. 

FLORENCE.  I  suppose  you  have  health  officers,  you're 
so  particular  about  keeping  everything  so  clean? 

ANT.  Each  ant  is  a  health  officer,  and  helps  clean  up 
itself,  other  ants,  and  the  house  and  premises,  without 
being  driven  to  it  by  health  officers,  doctors,  teachers  and 
street  commissioners,  as  you  must  be. 

FLORENCE.  Sometimes  you  seem  to  have  inspectors 
at  your  door.  Several  times  I  have  seen  ants  stopped  and 
their  loads  examined.  Some  of  the  loads  were  then  carried 
into  the  house,  but  others  back  on  the  yard. 

ALBERT.  Yes,  and  sometimes  the  examiner  and  worker 
couldn't  agree,  for  one  would  pull  this  way  and  another 
that.  They  are  just  as  likely  to  disagree  over  an  insect  as 
over  a  seed. 


PREPARING  FOR  ANOTHER  BATTLE          227 


Preparing  for  Another  Battle.    Clearing  Grounds. 

CECIL.  Do  you  know  that  I  think  our  ants  are  fixing  to 
move  again  or  are  getting  ready  for  another  battle  with 
the  Robbers?  They  are  acting  in  a  strange  manner. 

FLORENCE.  Yes.  They  have  opened  up  a  new  door 
through  which  they  can  escape  with  their  babies,  and  they 
won't  carry  in  much  of  the  melon  seed  I  give  them  any 
more. 

KENNETH.    And  they  have  quit  harvesting. 

DOROTHY.  And  they  don't  clean  up  their  yard  like 
they  used  to. 

FLORENCE.  I  do  hope  the  Robbers  won't  come  again. 
It's  a  pity  our  ants  can't  have  a  home,  a  family,  food,  and 
live  in  peace  on  account  of  those  thieves  and  kidnappers. 

ALBERT.  Ours  are  good  workers,  while  theirs  are  bad 
robbers.  Of  course,  plodding  Harvesters  stand  a  poor  show 
when  they  "meet  in  battle  those  whose  life  training  is  a 
preparation  for  butchery." 

ANT.    Maybe  this  is  as  true  of  man  as  of  ants. 

DOROTHY.  Talk  about  trouble!  Think  of  our  ants  at 
the  battle  of  the  telephone  pole!  Sixty  killed  and  others 
driven  from  home;  babies  stolen  and  stored  away  to  be 
fattened  and  eaten ;  many  lost  and  staying  out  in  the  weeds 
all  night!  It's  enough  to  drive  them  mad. 

FLORENCE.  How  our  ants  hated  to  give  up  that  home, 
and  kept  going  back  to  examine  it!  Once  I  saw  one  of 
ours  carry  another  one  back  to  the  old  home,  and  at  another 
time  I  saw  them  carry  sixteen  from  near  the  old  home  back 
to  the  new. 

DOROTHY.  At  different  times  I  saw  a  dozen  or  two 
walking  back  and  forth  between  the  old  home  and  the  new. 


228       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ALBERT.  Then  don't  forget  the  second  battle,  in  Which 
ours  lost  a  hundred  more  ants. 

KENNETH.  Something1  is  going  to  happen  again,  I 
think.  Our  ants  are  commencing  to  build  an  annex  two 
feet  from  home — over  in  the  dry  grass,  weeds  and  sticks. 
Seventy-five  workers  are  clearing  seventy-five  square 
inches  of  ground  around  the  door  of  the  annex. 

CECIL.  They  need  the  cleared  space  for  a  dirt  dump, 
besides  these  weeds  would  be  a  good  place  for  the  enemy 


An  Ant  Leaning  a  Blade   of  Grass  Against   the   Weeds. 

to  hide  in.  It's  a  rush  order,  all  right,  the  way  the  miners 
are  hustling.  The  ground  is  very  dry  and  hard,  too. 

KENNETH.  So  dry  the  ants  are  not  making  earth 
balls,  but  carrying  the  dirt  out  in  basketfuls  (jawfuls).  A 
basketful  is  the  size  of  a  small  pinhead. 

CECIL.  "Why  this  speeding  up  when  mining  is  so  hard, 
unless  they  have  received  a  wireless  message  that  another 
war  has  been  declared? 

KENNETH.    It  took  our  ants  twenty-four  hours  to  clear 


CARPENTERS'  COWS  DISCOVERED  229 

seventy-five  square  inches  of  ground,  and  they  have  now 
commenced  to  clean  up  a  much  larger  patch  just  outside 
of  this.  They  first  carry  away  all  the  loose  pieces.  It 
takes  several  ants  to  drag  the  larger  ones.  Those  standing 
are  pulled  in  different  directions  to  break  them  off. 

FLORENCE.  Yes,  and  some  pieces  are  so  stiff  they 
can't  get  them  down. 

KENNETH.  Maybe  they  wet  the  bases  of  dry  stalks  to 
soften  them,  or  put  something  on  to  rot  them  so  they  can 
pull  them  down? 

FLORENCE.  While  clearing  the  ground  of  weeds,  the 
ants  couldn't  remove  a  stout  blade  of  grass  that  was  very 
much  in  the  way  of  loaded  miners.  A  happy  thought 
struck  one  of  them.  She  took  the  free  end  of  the  grass 
in  her  jaws,  dragged  it  around  on  the  yard,  climbed  some 
weeds,  and  laid  the  end  of  the  blade  against  them,  as  I 
have  shown  in  the  picture.  You  can  see  how  she  would 
have  all  kinds  of  trouble  in  performing  this  task. 

The  Carpenters'  Cows  Are  Discovered. 

CECIL.  The  cows,  the  cows,  the  cows !  I've  found  the 
Carpenters'  cows!  I  followed  a  Carpenter  and  she  led  me 
to  the  top  of  an  oak  bush  as  high  as  my  head.  Other  ants 
were  there  and  showed  me  several  small  herds  of  ant  cows 
(aphids). 

KENNETH.  I  saw  them,  too.  The  cows  were  young 
and  giving  no  milk.  The  ants  were  just  herding  them  and 
waiting.  You  ought  to  see  the  Carpenters  go  up  the  trunk 
of  that  oak  bush  at  the  rate  of  six  inches  a  second.  Their 
abdomens  were  no  larger  when  they  came  down  than  when 
they  went  up. 

CECIL,     I  have  just  followed  another  Carpenter  forty 


230       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

feet,  and  then  up  a  small  cedar  tree.  There  the  ants  showed 
me  several  herds  ranging  from  six  to  one  hundred  twenty- 
five  cows  each.  One  or  two  ants  were  guarding  each  small 
herd,  and  from  six  to  nine  ants  each  large  herd.  They 
averaged  about  one  ant  for  seven  cows. 

KENNETH.  I  was  with  you.  All  ages  were  found 
among  the  cows.  I  saw  an  ant  stroke  the  sides  of  a  cow 
with  its  feelers  until  drops  of  honeydew  appeared.  Then 
the  ant  licked  these  up.  The  abdomens  of  the  ants  coming- 
down  the  tree  were  five  times  as  large  as  those  of  the  ants 
going  up. 

CECIL.  Yes.  Their  abdomens  were  stretched  until  the 
light  showed  through  between  the  plates  as  the  ants 
wabbled  down  the  trunk  with  full  milk  cans  (craws). 

KENNETH.  There  were  seventy-five  ants  and  five  hun- 
dred cows  on  the  tree.  An  ant  went  up  empty  about  every 
minute,  and  one  came  down  full  about  as  often.  So  it  took 
about  an  hour  and  a  quarter  to  fill  a  can  on  an  average. 

CECIL.  It  was  all  very  funny.  I  saw  a  full  ant  stop 
milking  long  enough  to  put  her  mouth  to  the  mouth  of  a 
discouraged  sister  and  give  her  a  taste. 

KENNETH.  Some  ants  were  out  of  luck  for  their  herds 
were  bone  dry.  After  coaxing  a  dry  herd  for  half  an  hour 
on  the  trunk  of  that  tree,  an  ant  gave  up  and  carried  her 
can  away  empty.  The  cows  didn't  kick  or  anything,  but 
seemed  to  enjoy  the  attention  they  were  getting.  They 
might  have  walked  away  had  they  wanted  to. 

CECIL.  The  ants  herd  these  cows  day  and  night,  and 
have  a  branch  nest,  or  hiding  place,  in  the  brush  at  the 
foot  of  the  tree  for  daytime.  I  suppose  they  carry  the  milk 
home  to  the  family  at  night. 

KENNETH.     We  were  expecting  to  find  the  cows  of  the 


CARPENTERS'  COWS  DISCOVERED  231 

Acrobats,  but  were  surprised  to  find  that  the  Carpenters 
have  cows  on  these  bushes. 

ALBERT.  It  was  near  this  tree  that  we  found  the  jaws 
of  five  Acrobats  clinched  on  the  legs  of  a  big  dying  Car- 
penter. So  I  think  we  shall  find  the  Acrobat  herds  near 
here,  also. 

KENNETH.  I  took  a  dozen  cows  to  the  nest  of  the 
Acrobats  and  the  same  number  to  our  ants.  All  the  cows 
were  soon  carried  indoors,  but  whether  for  milk  or  beef, 
I  don't  know. 

CECIL.  A  Carpenter  was  guarding  a  herd  on  the  trunk 
of  the  cedar  when  a  cow  got  killed.  The  ant  soon  discov- 
ered the  body,  doubled  its  abdomen  under  its  body  three 
times,  and,  I  suppose,  shot  three  charges  of  acid  toward 
the  cow. 

ALBERT.     How  do  you  explain  this? 

CECIL.  The  cow  was  in  a  little  trench  where  a  scar  on 
the  tree  trunk  was  healing  over.  I  suppose  the  ant  was 
gassing  the  trench,  hoping  to  destroy  or  drive  out  the 
enemy  that  had  killed  the  cow. 

ALBERT.     Maybe. 

CECIL.  After  the  acid  gas  had  blown  away,  the  ant 
jumped  into  the  trench  three  times,  snapping  its  jaws, 
hoping  to  crush  the  enemy.  It  had  been  watching  over 
this  herd  a  long  time.  Other  passing  ants  paid  no  atten- 
tion to  the  dead  cow. 

ALBERT.    Was  that  all? 

CECIL.  No.  The  ant  searched  all  around  the  herd 
looking  for  the  enemy.  It  then  examined  the  body  of  the 
cow  carefully,  got  something  on  its  feelers,  stopped  fifteen 
minutes  to  comb  them  out  with  its  forelegs,  jaws,  chin 
whiskers  and  mouth  parts. 


232       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  Our  miners  are  still  busy  at  the  annex, 
day  and  night — not  even  stopping  for  the  hot  sun.  They 
won't  quit  to  eat  walnut,  and  only  a  few  will  stop  to  drink. 
Busiest  ants  ever  I  saw.  Guess  they  all  know  war  has 
been  declared. 

CECIL.  There  isn't  room  for  all  the  ants  to  mine,  so 
about  half  of  them  stay  at  the  old  part  of  the  home.  Maybe 
they  work  in  shifts.  They  have  finished  clearing  the  ground 
around  the  annex,  but  it's  plain  the  annex  itself  is  not 
done  yet. 

DOROTHY.  The  ants  that  are  not  mining  are  not  work- 
ing. They  just  walk  around  as  if  dazed.  I  hope  they  will 
win  the  battle  again  if  attacked.  If  we  only  knew  when 
the  battle  is  to  take  place  our  ants  would  win.  Well,  I 
hope  they  will  get  the  annex  finished  in  time.  Here's  to 
their  success. 


THIRD  BATTLE  WITH  EYELESS  ROBBERS.  233 


CHAPTER  XV. 

June  13  to  June  17. 
A  Third  Battle  With  the  Eyeless  Robbers. 

ALBERT.  (8:30  A.  M.,  Tuesday.)  The  eyeless  Robbers, 
the  eyeless  Robbers,  the  eyeless  Robbers  are  here  again! 
Help!  The  war  is  on.  They  have  killed  250  of  ours  and 
not  lost  one  of  theirs.  The  battle  is  about  over,  for  ours 
are  beginning  to  run.  They  may  have  been  fighting  all 
night. 

DOROTHY.  These  Robbers  killed  sixty  of  ours  in  No- 
vember and  a  hundred  a  month  ago.  Add  the  250  they 
have  now  killed  and  you  have  410  of  ours  that  we  know 
the  Robbers  (Ecitons)  have  murdered. 

CECIL.  They  must  have  sprung  a  surprise  on  ours  this 
time,  after  all — before  ours  had  time  to  form  in  two  em- 
bankments around  the  door  as  they  did  a  month  ago.  And 
this  time  a  part  of  our  ants  were  in  the  main  building  and. 
a  part  were  two  feet  away  mining  at  the  annex. 

ALBERT.  The  battle  is  too  near  over  for  us  to  be  of 
any  use,  but  see  these  fight.  Here  are  twelve  bunches  of 
fighters.  In  each  group  about  five  of  the  Robbers  are 
attacking  one  of  ours.  See  the  bunches  roll  to  the  bottom 
of  the  grade. 

CECIL.  Small  ants  are  very  brave  when  in  large 
numbers. 

ALBERT.     Look!     One  of  ours  is  tackled  by  six  of  the 


234       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

enemy.  She  has  lost  one  feeler  and  there  goes  the  other. 
She  tried  to  hide  them,  but  failed,  and  is  left  to  die. 

KENNETH.  See  ours  hike  away  from  home.  They  are 
running-  thirteen  feet  and  hiding  in  a  cave  by  the  telephone 
pole.  The  Robbers  drove  them  away  from  the  other  side 
of  that  pole  seven  months  ago. 

FLORENCE.  I've  drawn  a  picture  that  will  show  you 
what  this  Robber  looks  like. 


THE    ROBBER    ANT. 
(Eciton   (Acamatus)   opacithorax  Emery.) 


Front    View. 

FLORENCE.  What  do  you  think  of  my  picture?  Look 
at  the  jaws.  The  length  of  this  ant  varies  from  one-eighth 
of  an  inch  to  twice  that,  and  the  length  of  the  jaws  varies 
more  than  that.  A  soldier's  head  isn't  large,  but  the  jaws 
are  fierce. 

DOROTHY.     This   is   the   villain   in   the   story— the   one 


THIRD  BATTLE  WITH  EYELESS  ROBBERS  235 

who  murdered  410  of  our  ants  and  kidnapped  and  ate  the 
babies.  If  ours  had  given  up  the  babies  without  a  fight, 
they  wouldn't  have  lost  an  ant. 

CECIL.  I  see  that  about  one  in  six  has  a  barb,  spine  or 
something  at  the  end  of  the  abdomen. 

KENNETH.  One  book  says  that  Ecitons  attack  above 
ground  generally.  These  did  the  second  and  third  time, 
but  I  think  they  attacked  under  ground  the  first  time.  At 
least  our  undertaker  or  something  carried  forty  dead 
Robbers  up  out  of  the  nest  after  the  first  battle. 

DOROTHY.  Look!  There  goes  one  of  ours  carrying  a 
queen,  and  several  of  the  rescue  squad  are  packing  away 
some  of  the  rattled  ants. 

FLORENCE.  Rattled!  Maybe  they've  been  gassed  or 
wounded.  This  isn't  the  first  time  we've  seen  our  ants  try 
to  rescue  their  wounded  from  other  ants. 

KENNETH.  Ours  may  have  carried  away  their  eggs, 
babies  and  queens  when  the  battle  began,  but  they  wouldn't 
have  time  to  save  their  grain.  But  the  Robbers  got  the 
babies  if  they  could,  and  as  they  won  the  battle,  I  fear 
they  did  so. 

DOROTHY.  The  enemy  has  moved  into  both  the  old 
parts  of  the  captured  house  and  the  new. 

ALBERT.  Just  look  at  the  feelers  of  our  250  dead  ants 
lying  around  here.  The  murderers  know  how  to  make  an 
ant  helpless,  it  seems. 

CECIL.  Yes.  An  insect's  feeler  is  the  most  sensitive 
organ  in  nature,  I  have  read.  A  bat's  wing  comes  second. 
An  ant's  brain  is  spread  out  over  its  feelers;  a  bat's,  over 
its  wings,  as  I  have  said  before. 

ALBERT.  A  wild  duck  struck  my  wireless  and  fell 
down  on  the  roof  of  our  house. 

CECIL.     No  danger  of  a  bat  doing  this. 


236      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ALBERT.  Did  you  notice  that  some  of  our  ants  were 
still  dusty,  as  if  they  had  left  their  mines  and  gone  right 
into  battle  ? 

FLORENCE.  The  result  of  the  battle  might  have  been 
different  if  the  annex  had  been  finished. 

DOROTHY.  How  can  our  ants  get  along  in  that  one- 
room  cave  after  living  in  a  house  with  a  place  for  every- 
thing ? 

CECIL.  The  same  as  man's  bankrupt  family,  start  all 
over  again — all  eat,  sleep  and  live  in  that  one  room.  Eggs, 
babies  (maybe),  kings,  queens,  2,000  workers,  guests — and 
only  one  bed. 

ALBERT.  It's  but  six  hours  since  the  battle,  and  our 
ants  have  gone  to  work.  That's  courage  for  you ! 

KENNETH.  Yes,  a  battle  in  which  ours  lost  their  lands 
and  home,  250  patriots,  and  probably  about  all  their  babies. 

FLORENCE.  Can't  we  help  our  ants  get  their  old  home 
back? 

KENNETH.  I'm  going  to  pour  seven  gallons  of  boiling 
water  into  the  new  part  of  the  house  and  one  in  the  old. 
The  Robbers  are  in  there  and  must  be  thirsty  after  the 
battle. 

FLORENCE.     Why  only  one  gallon  in  the  old  part? 

KENNETH.  So  our  ants  won't  have  a  half  bushel  of 
mud  to  carry  out  if  they  come  back  to  the  old  part  soon. 
Then,  I  suppose,  they  have  their  grain  stored  in  the  old 
part,  and  that  I  really  ought  not  to  -pour  any  water  in 
that.  They  can  live  in  the  old  part  while  the  new  dries 
out. 

ALBERT.     Well,  it's  time  for  the  funeral,  isn't  it? 

FLORENCE.     What  funeral? 

ALBERT.  Here's  a  thimble  with  a  penny  for  a  lid.  It 
isn't  every  ant  that  gets  a  copper  casket.  There,  I've  put 


THIRD  BATTLE  WITH  EYELESS  ROBBERS  237 

the  250  heroes  into  the  coffin.  Form  in  line  and  we'll 
march  to  the  grave. 

DOROTHY.  The  mocking-bird  is  furnishing  all  kinds  of 
music,  and  that  cricket  is  singing  "Peace,  peace,  peace." 

ALBERT.  There !  How  do  you  like  what  I've  written 
on  the  tombstone: 

DEATH  TO  ALL  TYRANTS. 

Here   lie   the   bodies 

Of  250  brave  ants  that  died 

In  defense  of  their  queens,  their  government, 

Their  children,  and  their  homes. 

KENNETH.  Ours  are  surveying  their  new  ranch.  Scouts 
go  out  in  all  directions  to  see  the  lay  of  the  land,  to  learn 
of  food  prospects,  and  to  locate  trails — maybe. 

ALBERT.  Look  at  this  undertaker.  She  has  dragged  a 
dead  queen  seven  feet  in  the  broiling  sun  over  a  bad  road. 
The  queen's  hooked  claws  catch  on  everything.  The  ant 
works  as  if  mad.  It  has  carried  the  body  by  the  mouth,  a 
leg,  the  back,  and  now  a  wing  has  been  pulled  off. 

KENNETH.  Well,  what  about  that?  The  undertaker 
has  had  heart  failure,  a  sunstroke  or  something  and  has 
fallen  over  dead.  Why  didn't  she  leave  the'  body  near  the 
cave  door.  I  saw  an  ant  overcome  that  way  yesterday 
when  the  heat  was  123  on  the  ground. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  that,  too.  The  next  ant  that  came 
along  picked  up  the  body  and  carried  it  into  the  shade  of 
some  saltgrass,  and  the  sick  ant  soon  came  to. 

KENNETH.  Two  other  ants  tried  to  help  our  under- 
taker drag  the  body  of  that  queen  just  mentioned,  but 
soon  quit  and  ran  to  shade.  I  suppose  that  queen  died  as 
the  result  of  the  battle  this  morning.  No  doubt  our  nurses 
are  having  a  busy  day  of  it  attending  to  the  sick  and 
dying. 


238       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

ALBERT.  These  two  ants  have  just  been  carried  out  of 
the  cave  to  die.  One  lias  lost  a  feeler  and  the  other  a  leg. 

KENNETH.  Here  lie  two  dead  queens  and  three  wings 
by  the  door  of  the  old  home.  Queens  killed  in  battle,  of 
course.  I  wonder  if  they  were  helping  fight. 

CECIL.  Our  ants  are  carrying  in  dry  leaves  and  sticks. 
Maybe  these  are  to  be  used  in  plastering  up  earth  cracks. 

CECIL.  (4  P.  M.,  Tuesday.)  Look!  Look!  Five  hun- 
dred of  ours  are  moving  their  grain  from  the  old  wet  home 
to  their  new  dry  den  by  the  pole.  Isn't  that  great?  They'll 
not  lose  all  their  grain,  after  all.  Hurrah,  hip,  hip,  hurrah ! 

DOROTHY.  They've  been  carrying  grain  now  for  two 
hours  and  are  about  done.  I'm  glad  they  saved  it  from 
sprouting,  and  glad  the  Robbers  didn't  get  it  if  they  wanted 
it,  and  glad  there  are  not  enough  Robbers  in  the  nest  to 
keep  our  ants  from  going  after  their  grain.  Yes,  I'm  glad 
all  over.  You've  been  figuring.  What  have — 

CECIL.  Well,  don't  get  excited.  Quit  talking  if  you 
want  me  to  answer.  Here's  what  our  ants  have  carried 
from  their  old  home  that  was  captured  by  the  enemy,  to 
their  new  cave,  in  the  last  two  hours : 

87  carriers  caveward  bound  48  times  equals  4,176  grains  of  oats. 

87  carriers  caveward  bound  48  times  equals  4,176  salt  grass  seeds. 

26  carriers  caveward  bound  48  times  equals  1,278  star  thistle  seeds. 

47  carriers  caveward  bound  48  times  equals  2,256  other  seeds. 

2  carriers  caveward  bound  48  times  equals          96  loads  of  mud. 

1  carrier     caveward  bound  48  times  equals         48  dead  Eobbers. 

250  carriers  caveward  bound  48  times  equals  12,000 
But  it  wasn't  the  same  250  carriers  each  time. 
FLORENCE.     The  mud,  the  Robbers— explain. 
CECIL.     The    mud    may    be    used    to    plaster    up    earth 
cracks   to   keep   enemies   out.     When   our   ants   went  back 
after  their   grain,   they  found  forty-eight   Robbers   in   the 
granary  or  elsewhere,  and  had  to  kill  them  before  the  seed 


THIRD  BATTLE  WITH  EYELESS  ROBBERS     239 

could  be  reached.  Several  times  I  saw  our  ants  drag  out 
a  Robber  and  bite  it  through  the  big  nerve  under  the 
shoulders  until  the  enemy  was  stone  dead. 

ALBERT.  Yes.  I  saw  some  of  ours  kill  a  Robber  single- 
handed.  Ours  didn't  lose  an  ant  this  evening,  and  the 
Robbers  didn't  lose  one  in  the  battle  this  morning.  The 
enemy  numbered  five  to  one  against  ours  this  morning, 
and  ours  numbered  five  to  one  against  theirs  this  evening. 
It  makes  a  difference. 

CECIL.  The  enemy  killed  ours  this  morning  mainly  by 
clipping  off  feelers,  and  ours  killed  the  enemy  this  evening 
by  crushing  the  bodies  near  the  front  legs.  But  the  deaths 
stood  250  to  50  (48)  against  us  for  the  day. 

DOROTHY.  I  see  ours  have  laid  the  48  dead  Robbers 
around  the  cave  door,  following  their  practice  as  seen  after 
the  battle  a  month  ago. 

FLORENCE.  Say,  I  wonder  if  there  is  room  in  that 
little  cave  for  12,000  loads  of  grain  along  with  the  2,000 
ants. 

KENNETH.  I  guess  my  8-gallon  Turkish  bath  this 
morning  must  have  killed  some  of  the  enemy  if  only  48 
were  left  this  evening. 

FLORENCE.  We'll  not  worry  any  more  about  our  ants 
starving.  From  your  figures,  they  like  wild  oats  and  salt- 
grass  best,  and  just  look  at  the  wild  oats  around  here. 
You  won't  have  to  sow  any,  will  you,  boys? 

DOROTHY.  Twelve  thousand  seed  kernels,  six  for  each 
of  our  workers.  I  hope  that  hot  water  didn't  wet  the 
grain  or  cook  it. 

ALBERT.  Each  ant  has  about  four  times  its  weight  in 
grain  flour.  This  is  enough  to  last  some  time  if  it  takes 
me  a  month  to  eat  my  own  weight. 


240       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

DOROTHY.  That  would  last  all  winter,  if  they  would 
keep  it  till  then. 

ALBERT.  (8  A.  M.,  Wednesday.)  Here's  another  "Hip, 
hip,  hurrah!"  for  our  ants  this  morning.  You  know  they 
had  the  fight  and  were  driven  from  their  home  yesterday 
morning  and  went  back  after  their  grain  yesterday  even- 
ing. 

DOROTHY.     Yes. 

ALBERT.  Well,  they  worked  all  last  night  cleaning 
the  mud  out  of  the  old  part  of  the  old  home.  They  want 
it  to  dry  out.  I'm  so  glad  Kenneth  didn't  pour  but  one 
gallon  of  water  into  that  part, 

CECIL.  It's  plain  that  our  ants  will  move  back  to  the 
old  home  soon — too  soon,  I  fear.  Better  be  here  at  four 
o'clock  this  evening  if  you  want  to  be  in  time  for  the  show. 
Good  day. 

ALL.     Good  day 

CECIL.  (Wednesday,  4  P.  M.)  Hello!  You're  on  time, 
but  too  late  to  see  it  all.  Our  ants  are  lugging  their  grain 
all  back  to  their  old  home.  At  first  500  ants  came  out  of 
the  cave,  and  walked  back  and  forth  twenty  minutes  on 
the  trail  to  the  old  home,  carrying  nothing. 

DOROTHY.     And  why  carrying  nothing? 

CECIL.  To  see  that  there  was  no  danger  along  the  trail, 
I  suppose.  Then  it  was  just  as  we  might  have  expected. 
The  eggs,  babies  and  one  winged  queen  were  taken  home 
first.  Other  queens  may  have  gone  earlier.  Three  walked 
without  help,  but  their  wings  were  badly  injured. 

FLORENCE.  How  many  eggs,  babies  and  young,  help- 
less white  ants  were  there? 

CECIL.  I  didn't  see  any  young  white  ants  and  only 
Iwenty-three  babies.  So  the  young  white  ants  and  the 
babies  may  have  been  stolen  by  the  kidnappers.  I'm 


THIRD  BATTLE  WITH  EYELESS  ROBBERS  241 

afraid  to  tell  the  number  of  eggs,  for  I  don't  believe  any 
one  would  believe  me. 

FLORENCE.  You'll  tell  somebody,  and  you  might  as 
well  begin  on  friends. 

CECIL.  There  were  about  thirty  eggs  in  each  small 
bunch  that  an  ant  carried,  and  I  counted  110  loads.  This 
would  make  3,300  eggs.  My  figures  are  low,  for  I'm  sure 
some  of  the  big  bunches  had  fifty  eggs  in  each. 

DOROTHY.  No  wonder  our  ants  are  building  an  annex 
to  their  house. 

FLORENCE.  Were  all  the  ants  loaded  with  eggs  or 
did  some  carry  other  things? 

CECIL.  There  were  about  twenty  guards  to  every  egg- 
carrier.  Of  course,  this  included  all  ants  that  were  return- 
ing to  make  another  trip,  for  they  would  be  guards  also  in 
ease  of  danger — almost  an  army  for  each  bunch  of  eggs. 
The  few  babies  were  carried  along  with  the  eggs. 

ALBERT.  By  this  time  I  had  come  up,  and  the  ants 
were  starting  in  to  carry  the  12,000  seeds  back  to  the  old 
home.  'They  are  making  a  mistake,  for  the  grain  will 
sprout.  The  nest  isn't  dry  yet.  But  I  suppose  they  are 
like  I  am — can't  wait. 

FLORENCE.  Were  there  any  guards  with  the  grain 
carriers  ? 

ALBERT.  None,  except  the  ants  that  were  returning 
for  other  loads.  Every  ant  carried  a  seed.  Of  course,  they 
carried  home  the  oats  first — their  largest  and  best  grain,  I 
think. 

DOROTHY.     Any  trouble  on  the  trail? 

CECIL.  Plenty  of  it.  The  trail  led  right  across  an  old 
Acrobat  home  full  of  ants  and  with  half  a  hundred  kings 
and  queens  in  it.  Maybe  you  think  the  Acrobats  didn't 


242       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OP  THE  GARDEN 

kick.  Ours  made  a  straight  shoot  for  home  and  didn't  have 
sense  enough  to  circle  around  this  madhouse. 

FLORENCE.     Just  like  them. 

CECIL.  The  Acrobats  rushed  out  and  tackled  our  car- 
riers. Then  about  200  of  our  guards  surrounded  the  door 
of  the  Acrobats,  piled  upon  the  ants,  and  let  the  enemy 
gas  and  nip  them. 

DOROTHY.     Hard  luck. 

CECIL.  Ours  snapped  back,  but  not  a  single  ant  was 
killed  on  either  side.  Neither  side  was  fighting  to  kill,  or 
there  would  have  been  dead  and  crippled  ants  on  the  battle 
field.  The  Acrobats  were  just  putting  up  a  bluff.  "When  in 
dead  earnest  their  jaws  never  let  go.  Ours  had  to  attend 
to  them,  so  they  wouldn't  stop  the  trail  of  the  egg-carriers. 

DOROTHY.     What  about  the  egg-carriers? 

CECIL.  Oh,  a  good  many  climbed  over  the  fighting 
mass  or  walked  through  the  Acrobat  jam  and  got  nipped 
or  shot.  After  the  eggs  were  all  home,  the  guards  all  left 
the  Acrobats'  nest  except  about  a  dozen,  and  they  stood  it 
out  until  all  the  grain  reached  home. 

ALBERT.  I  suppose  our  guards  piled  upon  the  enemy 
and  took  all  the  punishment  to  keep  the  Acrobats  busy 
and  thus  make  the  trail  safer.  I've  seen  our  ants  pile  up 
that  way  in  tackling  a  single  big  enemy  and  also  when  in 
battle  with  the  eyeless  Robbers. 

FLORENCE.  I  know  why  our  ants  went  into  that  cave 
instead  of  into  their  former  home  on  the  other  side  of  that 
telephone  pole.  A  colony  of  Longlegs  were  living  in  that 
former  home,  for  I  saw  them  moving  out  the  same  day  ours 
left  the  cave.  One  queen  of  the  Longlegs  was  twenty 
times  as  big  as  a  worker. 

ALBERT.     Our   ants   lived   in   that   cave   just   thirty-six 


THIRD  BATTLE  .WITH  EYELESS  ROBBERS  iM:J 

hours,  and  on  the  other  side  of  that  pole  just  six  weeks, 
seven  months  ago. 

DOROTHY.  Well,  say.  When  our  ants  got  moved 
hack,  did  they  carry  out  any  scalded  Robbers?  Did  your 
boiling  water  do  any  good? 

KENNETH.  Yes,  but  they  were  so  mixed  up  with  mud 
that  I  quit  when  I  had  counted  300  dead.  Maybe  some 
escaped  through  earth  cracks.  There  must  have  been  earth 
cracks,  for  the  nest  wouldn't  have  held  eight  gallons  of 
water.  I  guess  they  lost  more  ants  than  ours  did,  after  all. 
You  know  they  lost  900  in  the  second  battle  with  our  ants 
and  40  in  the  first,  and  we  know  of  348  this  time,  1,248  in 
all.  Not  so  bad. 

FLORENCE.  I  suppose  ants  are  like  boys  when  in  bat- 
tle or  in  trouble — always  have  a  leader,  but  nobody  knows 
how  or  why. 

CECIL.  They  act  more  like  each  ant  is  a  leader  and 
understands  the  whole  game.  No  particular  ones  lead — 
different  ones  lead.  For  some  purposes,  scouts  lead.  They 
say  that  the  robbers  send  out  scouts  before  attacking  in 
battle  and  in  that  case  the  scouts  would  lead. 

DOROTHY.  How  about  the  seeds  that  the  ants  carried 
back  to  the  wet  nest?  Did  they  sprout? 

ALBERT.  Yes,  hard  luck  again.  Most  of  the  salt-grass 
and  star  thistle  sprouted  and. have  been  thrown  out  on  the 
rubbish  heap.  By  carrying  the  oats  out  into  the  sun  every 
day  and  back  into  the  house  every  night,  the  ants  are 
saving  most  of  it.  The  pigeons  haven't  learned  about  it 
yet. 

DOROTHY.  A  few  weeks  ago  some  of  the  grain  sprout- 
ed. Four  pigeons  found  that  our  ants  were  carrying  it  out 


244      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

to   dry,   and   came   every   day   to   eat   it.      Of   course   they 
tramped  on  our  ants,  too,  and  maybe  did  worse  than  that. 

The  Robber  Ants  Attack  Another  Colony  of  Harvesters. 

ALBERT.  Kenneth  and  I  saw  the  Robbers  attack  an- 
other colony  of  Harvesters  one  evening.  The  Harvesters 
were  nearly  all  out  on  the  trail,  headed  for  the  harvest 
field.  Thousands  of  the  enemy  marched  in  behind  them, 
attacked  them,  and  prevented  their  return. 

KENNETH.  A  part  of  the  Robber  gang  held  the  Har- 
vesters about  fifty  feet  from  home,  while  others  went  back 
to  kidnap  the  young  ones. 

ALBERT.  But  they  had  bad  luck — there  were  no  babies 
in  the  home,  it  seemed.  Besides,  a  colony  of  Carpenters 
that  lived  but  a  few  inches  away  learned  of  the  danger, 
and  attacked  and  killed  several  of  the  enemy. 

KENNETH.  The  Robbers  must  have  reported  their 
failure  to  headquarters,  for  the  legion  filed  off  across  the 
country  to  find  another  home  to  rob. 

ALBERT.  I  wish  you  could  have  seen  the  thousands  of 
Robbers  march  in  files  like  soldiers,  four  to  ten  abreast. 
They  seemed  to  move  as  one  body. 

KENNETH.  Although  they  have  no  eyes,  they  have 
no  trouble  to  follow  each  other  as  they  march  over  new 
areas.  Instead  of  following  a  scented  trail,  tliey  give  off 
an  odor — not  of  formic  acid — that  enables  them  to  keep 
together.  They  are  great  travelers — keep  going  on  and  on. 
Migratory. 

ALBERT.  Dead  Robbers  are  to  be  found  around  the 
doors  of  many  Harvester  colonies.  Wonder  why  the  night 
scavengers  do  not  gather  them  up  like  they  do  other  dead 
ants. 


CARPENTERS.     COWS.     OTHER  INSECTS       245 

Carpenters.    Cows.    Other  Insects. 

FLORENCE.  How  are  the  Carpenters  and  their  cows 
coming  on  in  the  cedar  tree? 

ALBERT.  All  right,  and  it  beats  the  world  what  I've 
seen.  Why,  I  saw  the  cows  shoot  balls  of  honeydew  into 
the  air.  Much  of  it  lodged  on  the  cedar  leaves  about  an 
inch  below.  You  ought  to  have  seen  the  ants,  flies  and 
yellow  jackets  searching  those  leaves. 

KENNETH.  Yes,  and  if  you  get  the  sun  right  you  can 
see  the  little  balls  glistening  on  the  leaves.  The  Carpenters 
do  their  best  to  keep  the  other  things  away,  but  winged 
insects  have  the  advantage.  The  balls  dry  up  very  slowly. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  thirty-seven  Fuller's  rose  beetles,  each 
guarding  from  one  to  four  cows  on  the  twigs  at  the  foot 
of  that  cedar.  Yes,  and  the  ladybugs  were  there,  too. 

CECIL.  The  greatest  hunter  in  that  tree  is  the  metal- 
colored  wasp — the  one  that  keeps  flapping  its  wings  all 
the  time. 

ALBERT.  The  greatest  trapper  in  thac  tree  is  the 
spider.  The  many  visitors  make  business  very  good.  You 
know  why  the  visitors  come.  Great  sport.  It's  like  fish- 
ing— alwaj's  expecting  good  news  from  the  other  end  of 
the  line. 

KENNETH.  The  spider  is  a  cowboy,  when  it  is  roping 
an  animal  down;  an  architect,  when  it  is  building  a  sus- 
pension bridge;  a  weaver,  when  it  is  spinning  a  sheet;  and 
it's  a  lot  of  other  things. 

CECIL.    A  panther,  for  instance,  or  a  trapeze  performer. 

KENNETH.  The  spiders  have  made  twenty-three  traps 
near  the  cows  in  the  oak  bush,  and  are  doing  a  good  busi- 
ness. One  has  caught  two  Carpenters  and  a  rose  beetle. 

DOROTHY.     Now  what  are  you  doing? 


240       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OP  THE  GARDEN 

KENNETH.  This  Carpenter  was  herding  forty  cows  on 
this  twig  when  I  broke  it  oft'.  I've  carried  it  sixty  feet, 
and  the  ant  still  attends  the  herd.  I'll  lay  the  twig  by  the 
door  of  our  ants.  Look  at  the  Carpenter  jump  and  snap  at 
ours.  Here  come  a  dozen  Acrobats,  and  away  goes  the 
Carpenter,  but  not  until  she  had  been  shot  at,  The  cows 
don't  move  on  the  twig. 

FLORENCE.  Some  of  the  Acrobats  are  milking  in  the 
right  way,  some  are  in  a  hurry,  and  art*  squeezing  the 
abdomens  with  their  jaws,  and  others  are  biting  the  cows 
in  two.  Now  the  Acrobats  are  carrying  all  the  cows  into 
their  nest. 

KENNETH.  The  Acrobats  haven't  nerve  enough  to 
tackle  the  Carpenters  at  the  herds  up  in  the  oak  or  in  the 
cedar  tree,  even  if  they  did  chase  this  lone  one  away. 

FLORENCE.  Just  think  how  this  Carpenter  stuck  by 
her  cows  while  you  broke  the  twig  off  and  carried  it  far 
away,  and  how  that  other  Carpenter  defended  the  body  of 
the  cow  that  got  killed. 

DOROTHY.  Yes.  The  Carpenters  defend  their  herds 
about  the  same  as  shepherd  dogs  attend  theirs. 

FLORENCE.  I  wonder  what  the  Carpenters  are  getting 
on  that  sunflower? 

ALBERT.  They're  getting  something  to  fill  their  craws 
with  from  the  skin  of  that  plant  or  from  the  bulbs  at  the 
roots  of  the  stiff  hairs  or  from  little  sweet  balls  of  sap  on 
the  bark  that  I  haven't  found  yet.  Besides  this,  they  are 
herding  cows  on  that  plant. 

FLORENCE.  It's  something  sweet,  I  suppose,  for  I  see 
flies,  wasps,  ladybugs,  Acrobats,  and  other  insects  dining 
on  that  sunflower. 

ALBERT.     Yes,  and,  as  usual,  the  Carpenters  have  an 


CARPENTERS.     COWS.     OTHER  INSECTS.       247 

awful  time  trying  to  chase  these  insects  away.  By  the  way, 
I  saw  one  Carpenter  feed  another  one  again. 

KENNETH.  Several  Acrobats  were  getting  the  best  of 
a  big  Carpenter.  I  picked  up  the  whole  fighting  bunch 
and  dropped  it  at  the  door  of  our  ants.  A  thousand  of 
ours  rushed  out  of  the  house  and  piled  upon  the  fighters. 
I  then  drove  ours  away  and  laid  the  fighting  bunch  at  the 
Carpenter's  own  door. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  you.  Forty  Carpenters,  one  by  one, 
examined  into  the  sad  fate  of  their  sister,  but  offered  no 
help.  Finally,  one  small,  lank  sister  came  along  and  tried 
to  pull  an  Acrobat  loose,  but  couldn't.  She  then  doubled 
her  abdomen  under  her  body,  and  shot  the  enemy  four 
times,  but  its  jaws  still  held  on.  Finally,  the  Acrobat  was 
pulled  in  two,  but  still  the  jaws  held  their  grip. 

KENNETH.  By  this  time  two  other  Carpenters  had  been 
gassed  and  knocked  out,  and  the  captured  Carpenter  was 
crushing  the  head  of  one  of  the  enemy. 

ALBERT.     What  are  you  at  now? 

FLORENCE.  I'm  bathing  the  feet  of  this  Carpenter  in 
alcohol.  Poor  thing.  She  got  stuck  in  some  pinewax  on 
the  cedar  tree.  See?  She  can  run  now,  and  I  must  take 
her  home. 

ALBERT.     Alcohol ! 

FLORENCE.     That  wouldn't  hurt  her. 

ALBERT.  The  cows  were  having  another  shooting 
match  today.  I  suppose  their  bodies  would  be  smeared 
with  sticky  honey  if  they  didn't  shoot  it  away.  When  a  ball 
lodges  on  the  cows  they  kick  it  away — play  football  with 
it.  Sometimes  a  cow  stands  on  her  head  when  she  fires. 

KENNETH.  The  largest  group  on  that  tree  now  num- 
bers 500  cows.  A  herd  moves  whenever  it  wants  to.  Gen- 
erally they  live  about  a  foot  from  the  end  of  the  twigs, 


248       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

but  may  live  anywhere — even  on  the  trunk  if  there  is  a  scar 
with  new  bark. 

CECIL.  The  ants  take  good  care  of  their  herds  and  are 
well  paid.  They  do  all  the  milking  and  try  to  keep  other 
insects  away  from  the  dairy.  Yellow  jackets  would  carry 
oft  the  calves  to  feed  their  babies,  and  ladybugs  would  eat 
the  cows,  and  other  insects  would  steal  the  honey  and  pay 
nothing  for  it,  if  the  ants  were  not  such  watchful  shep- 
herds. 

KENNETH.  I  suppose  all  children  see  plant  lice  (cows) 
on  the  weeds,  garden  plants,  flowers  and  shrubs  around 
the  house.  The  lice  are  generally  green  or  brown.  They 
are  called  ant-cows  because  ants  milk  them.  I  found  some 
white  lice  on  the  cabbage.  After  I  rubbed  their  coats  off 
they  were  green. 

DOROTHY.  I  see  the  cows  often  shed  their  old  coats 
for  new  ones  that  fit  better.  The  cabbage  leaves  are  cov- 
ered with  their  old  coats.  I  guess  the  "bloom"  on  the 
cabbage  keeps  ants  and  many  other  insects  away.  These 
cows  don't  need  any  ants. 

KENNETH.  But  these  cows  give  milk  all  the  same. 
They  kick  the  balls  loose,  and  the  wind  blows  them  away. 

CECIL.  You  ought  to  see  them  drill  into  the  cabbage 
for  sap.  They  stand  on  their  heads,  kick  their  neighbors, 
and  give  their  bodies  a  twist.  When  the  captain  pumps, 
this  causes  a  wave  of  kicks  that  passes  out  to  the  edge  of 
the  company.  New  stunt.  Let's  try  it,  boys. 

KENNETH.  Yes.  They  drill,  or  pump,  by  the  pulse- 
once  every  second. 

CECIL.  Here's  a  cow  with  wings.  I  suppose  she  will 
soon  fly  away,  and  soon  become  the  mother  or  grandmother 
of  5,000  new  citizens.  But  the  winged  lice  are  not  the  only 
ones  to  lay  eggs. 


THE  VELVET  ANT  249 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

June  17  to  June  30. 

The  Velvet  Ant. 

FLORENCE.  What's  this  thing  I've  caught?  It  was 
running  towards  the  door  of  our  ants.  It's  as  long  as  a 
Carpenter,  but  'heavier,  wears  an  orange-colored  velvet 
coat,  has  ice-hook  jaws,  feelers  almost  like  an  ant's,  a  body 
covered  with  short  hairs,  and  the  thing  has  an  ant's  foot 
with  sharp  claws  for  digging.  Is  it  an  ant! 

ALBERT.  It's  called  the  Velvet  Ant,  but  it  isn't  an  ant 
at  all.  It  belongs  with  the  wasps.  A  girl  brought  me  a  big 
gray  one  from  up  the  coast.  The  one  she  gave  me  looked 
like  a  small  wingless  bumblebee  or  a  tiny  skunk. 

CECIL.  I've  seen  three  around  here  and  two  out  in  the 
mountains.  They  are  common  along  the  coast  and  in  the 
warm,  sandy  parts  of  the  United  States.  If  you  knew  as 
much  about  this  animal  as  I  do  you  wouldn't — 

FLORENCE.  Ouch,  it  stung  me!  Quit  your  laughing. 
It  doesn't  hurt  much.  Tell  us  more  about  it.  Ouch ! 

ALBERT.  A  university  man  gave  me  its  book  name  as 
"Mutilla  Calif ornica."  That's  the  little  yellow  one,  but 
they  are  of  various  beautiful  colors,  and  one  big  kind  has 
long  gray  hair.  They  have  several  names:  Velvet  Ant, 
Cow  Killer  and  Skunk  Ant.  You  can  tell  they  are  digging 
insects  by  the  way  they  can  bury  themselves  in  sand. 

CECIL.  The  males  have  wings,  but  the  females  haven't. 
They  don't  live  in  colonies,  but  alone,  like  the  cat.  They 


250      ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  TITE  GARDEN 

live  in  the  nests  of  bumblebees,  bees,  beetles,  probably  ants, 
and  with  other  insects,  and  their  young  eat  the  babies  of 
their  hosts. 

KENNETH.  I  saw  one  breaking-  for  the  door  of  the 
Carpenter  nest,  and  this  one  was  going  straight  for  the 
door  of  our  ants,  we  thought. 

ALBERT.  There.  I've  dropped  this  one  by  the  door. 
A  half  dozen  of  our  ants  have  jumped  on  it,  but  it  has 
escaped  to  be  tackled  by  others.  Look !  It  folds  each 
feeler  at  the  elbow  and  then  presses  it  close  against  its 
head. 

CECIL.  And  now  it  is  standing  on  its  head  to  hide  its 
feelers,  and  the  ants  bite  the  small  of  its  back.  That's  a 
new  stunt.  If  our  ants  would  take  a  few  lessons,  they 
wouldn't  lose  so  many  feelers  when"  attacked  by  the  Rob- 
bers. Do  you  know  that  some  writers  say  that  ants  came 
from  velvet  ants  and  velvet  ants  from  wasps! 

Our  Ants.    Enemies.    Other  Insects  Resembling  Ants. 

Ants  Carry  Water.     Cows.     Acrobats  Swarm. 

Crickets  Are  Watchdogs. 

FLORENCE.  Once  last  spring,  early  in  the  morning, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  of  our  ants  climbed  upon  the  level 
tops  of  some  old  dry  grass.  I  wonder  why? 

ALBERT.     To  take  a  sun  bath. 

FLORENCE.  Our  ants  have  more  friendly  visitors  than 
all  other  ants  put  together — Carpenters,  Acrobats,  Garden 
Ants,  and  even  Longlegs.  As  they  never  return  the  calls, 
why  do  they  have  so  many  callers! 

KENNETH.  Because  ours  are  farmers  and  hunters,  and 
have  plenty  to  eat.  A  good  deal  of  food  is  left  lying  around 
the  yard.  Then  our  ants  are  good-natured,  you  know. 


OUT  ANTS.     ENEMIES  251 

Ours  don't  visit  the  others  because  the  others  don't  have 
anything  ours  want  and  because  they  wouldn't  be  wel- 
come, anyhow.  Visitors  are  so  common  that  our  ants 
expect  them,  and  don't  get  excited  when  they  have  to  pro- 
vide an  extra  meal.  There  are  not  very  many  people  that 
way  any  more. 

FLORENCE.  Does  the  honeydew  come  out  of  the  two 
horns  on  the  back  part  of  the  abdomen  of  a  plant  louse 
or  ant  cow? 

KENNETH.  No.  Those  two  blunt  horns  are  hollow  and 
f^'ve  up  a  sticky  substance  to  protect  the  louse  from  lady- 
bugs  and  other  insects,  but  it  is  never  used  on  ants. 

FLORENCE.  How  can  our  ants  find  plenty  of  seeds 
where  there  seems  to  be  none? 

ALBERT.  Didn't  you  notice  last  winter  after  the  rains 
that  millions  of  them  sprouted  around  here?  In  many 
places  half  a  dozen  plants  would  spring  up  on  every  square 
inch.  But  sometimes  they  are  hard  to  find,  especially 
when  buried. 

FLORENCE.  An  ant  sixty  feet  from  home  was  trying 
to  drag  the  body  of  a  bee  to  the  nest.  I  carried  it  home 
for  her  while  she  stood  on  the  body  and  waited.  Did  she 
know  of  the  time,  distance  and  work  I  had  saved  her? 

CECIL.     Ask  something  easy. 

FLORENCE.     What  insects  resemble  ants? 

KENNETH.  Some  kinds  of  each  of  the  following :  Bee- 
tles, spiders,  wasps,  crickets,  velvet  ants,  and  termites 
(white  ants).  "We  told  you  once  how  to  tell  an  ant  from 
another  insect. 

FLORENCE.  Do  our  ants  care  anything  for  honey- 
dew  ? 

CECIL.     No. 


252       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

FLORENCE.  What  kinds  of  animals  capture  ants  for 
food? 

KENNETH.  Flickers,  sparrows,  woodpeckers,  meadow 
larks  (?),  thrushes,  young  chickens,  some  wasps,  ant  lions, 
some  spiders,  toads,  horned  toads,  lizards,  ant-eaters,  pups, 
some  guests  (eat  the  larvae),  and  even  man  himself. 

FLORENCE.  Does  any  kind  of  ant  ever  suckle  its 
young  ? 

ALBERT.     Ha,  ha,  ha! 

KENNETH.  One  species  of  Acrobats  come  near  doing 
so  from  glands  on  their  bodies  above  their  hind  legs. 

FLORENCE.  Can  ants  carry  water  home  for  the  fam- 
ily or  to  dampen  dry  ground  when  mining,  or  to  dampen 
ground  that  is  too  dry  and  loose? 

CECIL.  There  is  no  question  but  some  ants  have  been 
known  to  do  this.  The  books  say  the  ants  may  carry  the 
water  in  their  mouth  pouches.  I'd  like  to  know  why  they 
couldn't  carry  it  in  their  craws. 

FLORENCE.  We've  seen  a  few  of  our  crippled  ants  at 
work,  but  did  any  of  you  ever  see  a  crippled  Carpenter  at 
work  ? 

KENNETH. — Why,  I  saw  two  crippled  Carpenters  going 
to  milk  this  evening.  The  one  going  down  the  sidewalk 
had  lost  a  leg  at  the  knee,  and  the  one  going  up  the  cedar 
had  lost  a  foot.  Then  I  saw  one  that  had  lost  both  front 
legs  on  some  no-man's-land  trying  to  get  home.  Next, 
along  came  a  Carpenter  dragging  a  sister  home  by  a 
feeler.  A  mean  trick. 

FLORENCE.  We  saw  the  Garden  ants,  Acrobats  and 
the  Termites  (white  ants)  swarm,  but  I'm  sorry  we  have 
tc  close  the  year  without  seeing  our  ants  do  so. 

KENNETH.  I  saw  the  Acrobats  swarm  today,  and  so 
did  Albert.  Several  dozen  kings  and  queens  were  driven 


OUR  ANTS.     ENEMIES  253 

from  home.  The  workers  would  pull  and  push  them,  run 
over  them,  and  bite  their  feet  until  they  would  fly  away. 

ALBERT.  Some  were  willing  to  go,  some  refused  and 
forced  themselves  back  into  the  nest,  others  couldn't  fly 
and  were  teased  almost  to  death,  and  some  ran  away.  The 
branch  colonies  had  all  moved  into  the  main  nest  to  help 
get  the  kings  and  queens  off. 

FLORENCE.  What  did  you  boys  learn  when  you  visited 
the  man  that  lives  down  the  canyon? 

ALBERT.  He  asked  me  how  ants  get  under  a  plate  that 
sits  on  a  flat  surface,  and  I  couldn't  tell  him.  Then  I  asked 
him  if  he  wasn't  afraid  and  didn't  need  a  watch  dog.  He 
said  he  had  two  of  them — crickets. 

FLORENCE.     Crickets? 

ALBERT.  Yes.  He  says  that  one  cricket  at  the  front 
steps,  and  one  at  the  back,  sing  all  night,  but  always  stop 
vhen  anything  comes  near.  He  says  if  he  had  an  airedale 
it  would  depend  on  the  crickets. 

CECIL.  You  know  that  rabbits  skip  out  when  the  birds 
fly,  and  they  say  the  moose  runs  when  the  moose  bird  rises 
from  the  brush. 

ALBERT.  The  man  said  he  put  some  kerosene  on  some 
plant  lice,  and  they  swelled  up.  Of  course  I  didn't  know 
why. 

FLORENCE.  When,  according  to  the  books,  do  robber 
ants  make  their  raids? 

CECIL.  In  the  late  summer  or  early  autumn,  and 
usually  begin  about  four  o'clock  in  the  evening.  The  last 
raid  made  on  our  ants  began  in  the  morning,  or  else  it 
lasted  all  night. 

KENNETH.  Our  colony  is  not  a  large  one,  and  it  has 
been  having  such  hard  luck;  it's  not  increased  in  numbers 


254       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

lately.  My  guess  is  that  within  a  few  years  the  Robbers 
and  horned  toads  will  have  destroyed  it. 

DOROTHY.  The  hot  sun  was  too  much  for  eight  of  ours 
Ihis  afternoon.  They  had  to  be  carried  home  from  the  trail 
by  others.  Some  had  lost  their  minds  and  couldn't  find 
their  way,  and  others  couldn't  walk. 

FLORENCE.  Some  of  our  ants  must  be  old  or  have 
rheumatism.  They're  stiff.  Many  of  them  are  carried  out 
of  the  house. 

ALBERT.  They're  nervous  about  something  again. 
Last  night  at  eleven  o'clock  guards  were  stationed  all  over 
twelve  square  feet.  They  stood  about  four  inches  apart, 
and  were  almost  still.  Once  they  rushed  for  the  door,  but 
it  must  have  been  a  false  alarm,  as  they  all  went  back  and 
took  their  stations  again. 

DOROTHY.  Ours  don't  seem  to  raise  any  cows  to  bother 
gardeners  and  farmers,  and  never  go  into  our  houses.  They 
do  no  harm  that  I  know  of.  We  think  kindly  of  useful 
kdybugs.  Why  not  of  useful  ants? 

FLORENCE.  Henry  McCook  spent  many  years  study- 
ing ants  and  writing  about  them,  as  we  knoAV.  He  plants 
one  stalk,  root  or  seed  for  birds  and  insects,  and  two  for 
himself.  You  see  he  is  willing  to  divide  up. 

ALBERT.     You  have  it  wrong: 

"One  for  the  blackbird, 

One  for  the  crow, 
One  for  the  cutworm, 
And  two  for  to  grow." 

KENNETH.  At  first  we  thought  our  ants  didn't  make 
trails,  but  later  we  found  them  making  very  good  ones. 
Then  we  thought  they  couldn't  clear  the  ground  of  weeds 
around  their  house,  but  found  we  were  mistaken.  Next 


FLYING  255 

we  accused  them  of  not  climbing  weeds  for  seed,  but  later 
Albert  saw  a  hundred  climb  star  thistle  and  gather  ripe 
seed. 

FLORENCE.  It  was  only  today  that  I  watched  one  of 
c-nrs  climb  a  plantain  weed  an  inch  high  and  cut  the  six- 
seeded  top  off  in  ten  minutes.  Then  another  ant  came 
along  and  dragged  the  head  home.  One  time  in  March  I 
saw  a  score  of  ants  at  this  same  work  for  several  days. 

Flying. 

CECIL.  I  have  just  learned  how  fast  some  insects  move 
iheir  wings.  The  house  fly  flaps  hers  352  times  a  second, 
and  the  honey  bee  440.  The  bee  must  have  small  wings 
and  stout  muscles.  After  man  had  looked  at  these  insects 
6,000  years  he  saw  how  it  was  done,  turned  the  propeller 
1,400  times  a  minute,  and  he  could  fly,  too. 

FLORENCE.     But  which  can  fly  the  faster? 

CECIL.  Why,  man  can  fly  100  miles  in  half  an  hour. 
Even  the  birds  fly  only  about  thirty  miles  an  hour  when 
not  frightened. 

KENNETH.  As  Cecil  once  said,  ants  lost  their  eyesight 
and  wings  when  they  were  driven  to  living  in  the  ground. 
Like  man,  they  are  now  tied  to  the  earth. 

ALBERT.  Are  you  certain  that  man  is  tied  to  the 
earth  ? 

Ladybugs,  Spiders,  Daddy  Longlegs,  Oak  Galls, 
Wireless,  Cigarettes,  Mites,  Bats. 

FLORENCE.  Tell  us  a  little  about  the  ladybug.  It  is 
said  there  are  2,000  kinds. 

CECIL.  Never  kill  ladybugs.  They  live  chiefly  on  small 
harmful  insects,  as  plant  lice  and  plant  scales.  When 
frightened,  the  ladybug  draws  her  legs  under  her  and  a 


256       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

yellow  juice  comes  out  of  their  joints.  This  is  bad  smell- 
ing. 

KENNETH.  They  say  there  is  a  ladybug  coming  this 
way  from  Mexico,  that  is  an  awful  pest. 

ALBERT.  I  read  of  a  state  that  shipped  in  several 
millions  of  ladybugs  to  help  destroy  harmful  insects. 

FLORENCE.  I  like  to  see  her  fly  from  the  palm  of  my 
hand  when  I  say, 

"Ladybug,  Ladybug,  fly  away  home ; 
Your  house  is  on  fire 'and  your  children  will  burn." 

DOROTHY.  A  girl  from  the  ranch  says  she  finds  the 
cows  this  way:  She  holds  a  Daddy  Longlegs  up  and  says, 
"Daddy  Longlegs,  tell  me  where  the  cows  are."  Then  he 
points  the  right  way. 

FLORENCE.  They  say  that  the  crickets  that  live  with 
some  ants  are  about  the  size  of  a  grain  of  wheat,  that  they 
play  around  the  door  like  dogs,  and  that  the  ants  carry 
them  along  when  they  move. 

ALBERT.  I  saw  a  spider  build  a  wagon-wheel  trap,  or 
snare,  last  night.  It  took  her  four  hours.  It  would  take 
a  book  to  tell  what  I've  seen  spiders  do.  They  are  won- 
derful animals. 

KENNETH.  A  spider  the  size  of  a  housefly  caught  one 
of  our  ants,  and  I  put  them  both  in  a  small  bottle,  and 
laid  it  by  the  door.  Another  ant  walked  into  the  bottle, 
tackled  the  spider,  took  the  ant  away  from  it,  and  carried 
the  body  three  feet  to  one  side. 

ALBERT.  Yes.  And  then  the  other  ant  killed  the 
spider,  carried  it  away  three  feet,  stopped  to  think,  and 
the  turned  round  and  took  it  into  the  house. 

KENNETH.  Look  at  the  little  oak  galls  on  this  bush. 
Some  of  them  look  like  rosy-cheeked  apples.  One  hundred 
and  fifty  kinds  of  galls  have  been  found  on  the  oak. 


LADYBUGS,  SPIDERS,  ETC.  257 

CECIL.  And  each  kind  of  gall  is  made  by  a  different 
kind  of  wasp  or  gnat.  She  drills  a  hole  in  the  leaf  or  stem, 
deposits  her  eggs,  and  the  large  growth  of  the  plant  at  this 
point  does  the  rest.  Easy  way  to  get  a  house  built  and  to 
get  food  for  the  young  ones. 

FLORENCE.  Yes,  but  I  don't  think  much  of  the  mother. 
She  never  returns  to  see  what  becomes  of  the  family. 

ALBERT.  Some  of  the  oak  balls  on  these  bushes  are 
round  and  some  are  three  inches  long.  It  was  in  one  of 
these  that  a  boy  found  a  colony  of  ants  living — Carpenters, 
I  would  guess. 

FLORENCE.  I'd  like  to  know  why  cats  are  so  fond  of 
catnip. 

CECIL.  Maybe  for  the  same  reason  that  some  ants  are 
fond  of  bug  cigarettes.  One  book  says  that  these  cigarettes 
hairs  are  riot  in  little  pits,  and  that  they  may  be  found  on 
almost  any  part  of  certain  bugs. 

FLORENCE.  We  don't  know  what  animals  lived  with 
our  ants  except  the  little  white  mites.  Something  like  a 
tiny  locust  and  another  like  a  tiny  cockroach,  or  some- 
thing, seemed  to  live  with  them,  also.  Oh,  yes — and 
something  like  tiny  spiders,  too. 

CECIL.  We've  often  said  that  what  one  ant  knows  in 
a  colony,  they  all  know  by  a  wireless  we  can't  under- 
stand. But  this  is  about  as  true  of  a  flock  of  migrating 
birds,  a  school  of  fish,  a  hive  or  swarm  of  bees,  and  a 
march  of  army  worms.  But  we've  seen  plenty  of  instances 
where  our  ants  didn't  all  think  the  same  thing — when  ants 
disagree,  for  instance. 

ALBERT.  How  can  a  bat  in  a  dark  room  dodge  a  wire 
after  it  strikes  it? — fly  back  and  forth  through  the  meshes 
of  a  screen  without  winging  itself? 

CECIL.     Give  it  up.     By  what  string  is  the  hawk  tied 


258       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

to  the  bird  it  pursues?     I  guess  other  animals  besides  ants 
have  a  wireless,  too. 
After  a  Year's  Search  the  Acrobat  Cows  Are  Discovered. 

KENNETH.  Hurrah  for  me !  I  saw  a  hundred  Acrobats 
climbing'  the  black  acacia  tree  that  is  about  fifteen  feet 
high.  A  few  were  coming  down  and  their  abdomens  were 
three  times  as  big  as  those  going  up.  That  gave  me  the 
clew. 


A  B 

A — Cedar  with  plant  lice  herded  by  Carpenters. 

B — Black  acacia  with  cottony  cushion  scale  herded  by  Acrobats. 

DOROTHY.     Well,  hurry  up  and  tell  us  about  it. 

KENNETH.  They  were  not  herding  plant  lice  at  all, 
but  the  Cottony  Cushion  Scale — one  of  the  plant  scales. 
The  ants  were  using  the  insect  for  cows  all  the  same. 
They  were  herding  the  scale  just  the  same  as  the  Carpen- 
ters herd  the  aphids,  or  plant  lice,  on  the  cedar,  oak  and 
sunflower. 

ALBERT.  I  see  the  scale  is  about  as  large  as  a  lady- 
bug.  From  her  under  side  she  hangs  a  poke-like  white 
egg-sack  a  half  inch  long  and  fills  it  with  about  three  hun- 


ACROBAT  COWS  ARE  DISCOVERED  259 

dred  eggs.  Then  she  stays  on  this  sack  as  a  roof  and  lays 
eggs  until  she  dies.  This  scale  does  a  lot  of  harm  to  trees. 

KENNETH.  When  the  ants  stroke  the  mother  and  older 
children,  balls  of  honey-dew  appear.  "Within  ten  minutes 
I  saw  a  cow  give  up  four  balls  of  milk  to  a  brunette 
Acrobat  while  a  blonde  one  waited  for  a  fifth. 

FLORENCE.  One  writer  says  he  saw  a  plant  louse  give 
up  forty-eight  drops  of  honey  in  twenty-four  hours. 

KENNETH.  But  don't  think  an  Acrobat  can  always 
get  five  drops  in  ten  minutes,  as  I  have  just  mentioned. 
Once  I  saw  it  take  five  hours  to  get  one  tiny  drop,  and 
that  was  the  first  milking  I  watched.  I  had  a  notion  to 
help. 

ALBERT.  The  Carpenters  know  better  than  to  bother 
the  Acrobat  herds  and  the  Acrobats  know  better  than  to 
bother  the  Carpenter  herds.  Sure  death  is  the  penalty  in 
either  case. 

FLORENCE.  The  Carpenters  go  out  alone  and  search 
all  over  shrubs  and  trees  for  cows.  It  looks  to  me  as  if 
they  are  better  hunters  than  the  Acrobats.  They  have 
plant  lice  herds  on  three  plants  while  the  Acrobats  have 
scale  herds  on  only  one. 

CECIL.  But  I  think  that  either  could  defend  a  herd 
against  the  other  after  getting  possession. 

ALBERT.  The  Acrobats  herd  their  cows  so  carefully  in 
order  to  keep  ladybugs  and  other  insects  away.  The  Car- 
penters do  the  same.  A  ladybug  was  eating  a  young  plant 
louse  one  day,  but  a  Carpenter  soon  put  an  end  to  the 
meal. 

CECIL.  Today  three  Carpenters  ran  into  a  trail  of 
Acrobats  near  the  acacia  where  the  Acrobat  herd  is.  One 
Carpenter  escaped,  but  each  of  the  other  two  soon  lost  a 
feeler.  Nine  Acrobats  and  two  Carpenters  was  the  death 


260       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

roll  after  the  battle  was  over.  Yet,  generally,  these  ants 
don't  fight  when  they  meet.  Even  a  trail  of  our  ants  and 
the  Robbers  may  cross  without  danger. 

ALBERT.  But  look  out  if  it's  a  defense  of  home  or 
herds.  Then  it's  a  fight  to  a  finish.  There's  no  bluffing 
fit  such  times — no  nipping,  but  death  gripping.  Still,  I've 
seen  Carpenters,  Acrobats,  Garden  ants,  and  even  Long- 
legs  visit  the  yard  of  our  ants  and  stay  for  a  meal — even 
eat  side  by  side  with  ours. 

KENNETH.  I'm  told  that,  around  here,  the  Acrobats 
attend  their  herds  the  year  round,  but  that  the  Carpenters 
omit  "winter. 

CECIL.  Of  course,  the  Acrobats  and  Carpenters  could 
swap  herds  and  get  along  just  as  well  as  if  they  wanted  to. 

ALBERT.  Say,  the  Acrobats  have  built  fourteen  stables 
for  their  cows  in  the  scars  that  are  healing  over  on  the 
trunk  of  that  acacia.  One  stable  has  fourteen  cows  in  it. 
There's  a  tiny  hole  in  each  roof  so  the  ants  can  get  in  and 
out,  but  the  cows  can't  (October). 

KENNETH.  Maybe  the  cows  won't  want  out  until 
spring,  for  there's  plenty  to  eat  in  the  new  bark  of  the 
scars.  I  saw  some  cows  go  into  the  stable  before  the  roof 
was  finished. 

CECIL.  I  saw  a  calf  squeeze  through  a  very  small  door 
to  get  into  the  stable.  I  thought  I'd  help.  So  I  placed  a 
young  cow  in  an  unfinished  stable.  The  ants  bit  it  and 
promptly  carried  it  out.  Then  I  placed  one  just  outside 
the  door  and  the  ants  toted  it  in.  Ants  are  as  queer  as 
girls. 

KENNETH.  The  cows  will  stay  in  the  sheds  all  winter, 
but  the  rain  and  winds  may  destroy  the  roofs.  The  young 
ones  will  grow,  and  by  next  May  or  earlier  will  lay  eggs. 
Often  I've  seen  as  many  as  nine  ants  trying  to  milk  one 
cow  (scale). 


ACROBAT  COWS  ARE  DISCOVERED  261 

ALBERT.  A  man  told  me  the  Acrobats  will  build  stables 
any  time  of  year,  especially  if  cows  are  scarce. 

CECIL.  Some  writers  say  the  dried  honey-dew  of  plant 
scales  was  the  manna  of  the  Bible,  but  that  book  doesn't 
seem  to  say  so.  But  it  is  true  that  in  Australia  one  person 
can  gather  two  or  three  pounds  of  manna  in  a  day.  The 
Arabs  call  it  "man"  and  use  it  for  food.  Sometimes  it 
dries,  peels  off  the  trees  and  floats  through  the  air  like 
snow. 

FLORENCE.  I  know  of  thirty-five  Acrobats  that  built 
a  shed  in  another  acacia  tree,  but  had  bad  luck.  Some 
disease  has  killed  all  the  cows,  but  the  ants  themselves 
have  set  up  housekeeping  in  the  stable. 

DOROTHY.  The  bloom  of  the  red-flower  gum  tree  is 
cup-shaped  at  the  base.  I  found  from  one  to  twenty  Acro- 
bats in  nearly  every  cup.  Many  bees  were  flying  around, 
but  very  few  would  enter  a  flower  that  contained  ants. 
However,  one  bee  made  the  venture,  but  got  shot  and  fell 
to  the  ground  paralyzed.  But  in  a  few  minutes  it  recov- 
ered. 

FLORENCE.     That's  something  new. 

DOROTHY.  Six  ants  were  in  one  of  the  cups.  One 
clasped  another  by  the  back  and  held  her  while  she  gave 
up  some  honey-dew  to  a  hungry  sister,  mouth  to  mouth. 
A  second  ant  that  asked  for  a  hand-out  was  turned  down 
cold.  I  watched  this  thing  go  on  until  I  got  tired  and  set 
Ihe  prisoner  free. 

KENNETH.  Every  evening  for  a  week  a  band  of  Acro- 
bats tried  to  burglarize  the  home  of  the  Garden  ants.  The 
Garden  ants  keep  a  pile  of  stones  near  the  door.  When  the 
enemy  would  appear  these  stones  would  be  rushed  to  the 
door  and  dropped  in  until  the  stairway  was  plugged  up. 

ALBERT.     Yes,    and   then   the   enemy   would   begin   to 


262       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

remove  the  stones,  and  it  was  a  tight  race.  The  Acrobats 
generally  won  out. 

DOROTHY.  I  now  see  why  that  pile  of  stones  is  kept 
by  the  door. 

ALBERT.  The  Garden  ants  are  much  the  smaller  and 
can  squeeze  down  the  stairway  even  after  it  is  plugged  up. 
Often  they  build  a  pyramid  over  the  door  to  keep  the 
Acrobats  out,  but  the  builders  always  know  where  there  is 
a  door  at  which  they  can  enter. 

The  Year  Is  Up,  and  the  Ants  Are  Given  a  Feast. 

KENNETH.  I  gave  our  ants  a  T-bone  that  had  a  little 
meat  left  on  it.  You  see,  the  year  is  up,  and  I  wanted  to 
give  them  a  feast  they  wouldn't  forget.  Well,  besides  the 
T-bone  I  gave  them  some  cooked  squash  and  some  weak 
alcohol. 

FLORENCE.  Meat,  squash  and  poison — something  of  a 
feast,  I  should  say. 

KENNETH.  A  large  number  of  ants  at  once  stationed 
themselves  near  the  bone.  They  knew  the  smell  of  it 
would  bring  many  enemies,  I  guess.  Then  I  had  to  leave. 

FLORENCE.     Sorry. 

KENNETH.  Three  hours  later  I  again  appeared  on  the 
scene — nine  o'clock  at  night — with  my  flashlight.  One 
hundred  ants  were  eating  what  little  meat  was  left,  three 
hundred  guards  were  stationed  over  the  yard,  twenty  ants 
were  trying  to  cover  r,p  the  bone  with  dirt,  one  was  eat- 
ing squash,  many  were  drinking  hard,  but  there  was  a 
disturbance  on  the  east  side  of  the  bone. 

FLORENCE.  And  what  was  the  matter  down  on  the 
oast  side  ? 

KENNETH.  About  three  hundred  of  our  ants  down 
there  were  formed  in  a  mass,  standing  side  by  side  about 


THE  YEAR  IS  UP  l  263 

one-eighth  of  an  inch  apart,  and  facing  an  old  Acrobat 
nest  that  was  four  feet  away.  In  front  of  our  ants  were 
a  hundred  Acrobats  that  thought  they  ought  to  have  been 
invited  to  the  feast. 

DOROTHY.     Well,  I'm  not  surprised.     Go  on. 

KENNETH.  Our  ants  had  their  heads  down  close  to 
the  ground,  like  fighting  roosters.  After  many  a  jerk, 
jump,  somersault,  dodge,  grab,  tumble,  scrap  and  shot,  the 
Acrobat  jam  forced  a  flying  wedge  through  the  ranks  of 
our  ants  and  climbed  onto  the  T-bone. 

DOROTHY.  Ours  were  just  bluffing,  or  some  of  the 
ants  would  have  been  killed.  Neither  did  the  Acrobats 
try  to  kill  ours.  That's  certain. 

KENNETH.  I  left  and  came  back  at  ten  o'clock,  but 
some  poor  dog  had  carried  off  the  bone — ants  and  all,  I 
suppose. 

FLORENCE.  I  wondered  why  our  ants  had  the  St. 
Vitus  dance  this  morning.  Combination  of  beef,  battle  and 
bottle. 

ALBERT.  I  gave  ours  some  grapes  this  evening  to  quiet 
their  nerves,  but  not  an  Acrobat  stood  at  the  well-filled 
lunch  counter.  Always  before  this  they  attended  all  wine 
suppers  given  by  our  ants — uninvited. 

FLORENCE.  Our  ants  have  moved  four  times  within  a 
year,  used  four  different  nests,  and  lived  in  one  of  the 
houses  twice.  They  moved  three  months  after  we  first 
found  them,  lived  in  the  next  house  six  weeks,  and  in  one 
only  thirty-six  hours.  We  know  they  have  been  chased 
from  home  twice,  and  that  they  have  had  three  battles 
with  the  Eyeless  Robbers. 

ALBERT.  Yes,  and  now  a  man  is  building  a  house  by 
theirs  and  has  covered  the  nest  a  foot  deep  with  earth. 
So  the  ants  have  been  forced  to  move  the  fifth  time.  They 


264       ANTS  AND  CHILDREN  OF  THE  GARDEN 

are  now  mining  a  new  home  forty  feet  east  of  the  old  one, 
jmiong  the  fruitful  weeds  in  our  last  year's  bean  patch. 
Come  and  see. 

ANT.     Hello,  children'. 

FLORENCE.  Well,  this  is  June  the  first  and  our  year 
is  up.  So  it's  good-bye  ants  and  all  the  other  insects. 

DOROTHY.  I  think  of  our  Harvesters  as  little  people. 
You  know  they  would  let  us  play  with  them — weren't 
afraid. 

KENNETH.  Look  at  them  now— all  working  and  all 
minding  their  own  business. 

CECIL.     And  the  wisest  of  all  insects. 

ANT.     Thank  you. 

Farewell. 

ALBERT.  Here's  to  your  success  and  happiness,  Ant. 
Attention!  The  Bean  Gang  will  come  to  order  for  this 
last  meeting  and  make  remarks  afterwards.  We  have  spent 
many  pleasant  hours  with  our  little  friends  since  July  1st, 
one  year  ago.  Is  there  any  unfinished  business? 

FLORENCE.  I  move  that  Ant  be  elected  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Bean  Gang. 

ALBERT.  The  motion  is  carried  and  you  are  appointed 
to  bring  the  new  member  forward.  Any  farewell  speeches? 

DOROTHY.     I— I- 

FLORENCE.     I— I—         Loan  me  your  handkerchief. 

ANT.     I—I—I— 

KENNETH.     Mr.  President,  I— I— 

CECIL.  Mr.  President,  I  move  we  adjourn  "sign  a  die." 
I  guess  that's  what  they  call  it. 

ALBERT.  The  motion  is  carried  and  the  Bean  Gang 
Society  is  adjourned  forever. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


LD  2lA-45m-9,'67 
(H5067slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


YC  15218 


49390; 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


